USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > Centennial history of Norway, Oxford County, Maine, 1786-1886, including an account of the early grants and purchases, sketches of the grantees, early settlers, and prominent residents, etc., with genealogical registers, and an appendix > Part 13
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CHAPTER XIII.
NORWAY IN 1852.
IN closing up his history of Norway, which was published in 1852, Mr. David Noyes gave a brief résumé of the business carried on in town at that time, except farming, which then, as now, constituted the chief employment of the people. This account, containing all the material facts, is condensed into this chapter :-
I shall proceed to show the present situation of things about town, that you may be able to make a fair comparison between the situation of the place in 1786, and in 1852, comprising a space of sixty-six years. The great and principal business of the town is agriculture, although there is much mechanical and other business done at the present day, and, for that matter, always has been, since its first settlement. There are now fourteen school-houses, and the same number of school districts, containing eight hundred scholars, and one academy, of which I shall speak hereafter. At the first named period, this town was a howling wilderness - one unbroken forest, destitute of the first mark of civilization; now, few towns can boast of fairer fields, or a more pleasant, thriving village. In regard to the business done in the town, beside that of farming, I will commence with affairs at the Steep Falls.
The stream which furnishes the water-power is the outlet of the great Pennessewassee Lake, and the whole fall is about sixty-five feet, within a distance of twenty rods, or less. The upper privilege is occupied by the paper-mill of Dr. Asa Danforth; it is built on the most improved plan, and does a good business. This establishment uses up one hundred tons of rags, one hundred and seventy-five cords of wood, one hundred and fifty casks of lime, twelve casks of chloride of lime, nine hundred and sixty pounds of oil of vitriol, and turns out fifteen thousand dollars' worth of paper annually. Three men and three girls are employed. George W. Seaverns, foreman and superintendent. This is a very fine privilege for the paper-making business, on account of the clearness and softness of the water, which far surpasses many other privileges improved for like purposes. The mill was put in opera- tion in January, 1848, and the paper manufactured in it has already established a high reputa- tion.
On the next fall is a shingle machine, and an engine lathe, owned by Joel Parkhurst, who saws two hundred thousand of shingles per year, and sometimes more, beside other business .
On the lower fall is A. C. Denison's saw-mill, which cuts out about six hundred thousand of lumber per year. J. B. Crooker foreman.
On the lower fall, also, opposite the saw-mill, is Brown and Company's iron foundry, in which are manufactured, largely, stoves, fire-frames, ash, oven and boiler-mouths, agricultural implements, wheel-hubs, and almost anything else made in such establishments, beside a large business in the manufacture of butt-hinges, latches, etc. ; they have two engine-lathes, and are prepared to execute almost any work, in wood or iron, that is called for; there are
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
used one hundred and fifty tons of iron, and fifty tons of coal per year. Connected with this establishment is a shop for working tin and sheet-iron, and a large store of goods of almost all kinds, which are sold to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars per year, exclusive of their castings. J. B. Brown, of Portland, principal or sole owner; Franklin Manning is superintendent. The works were started in 1847, and are yearly increasing.
A new store has been opened near Brown and Company's by Henry Houghton, within the past year, not long enough since to determine, with much accuracy, the amount of business ; but probably about six thousand to eight thousand dollars per year.
Adna C. Denison came from Vermont to Norway in 1842, and commenced trade in the store of J. B. Brown, at the Steep Falls, (the store now occupied by Brown & Co.,) and in a short time, did a great business for a country store. He carried on trade on a different scale from what had previously been customary in this section of the country: he bought almost every commodity offered, which could be considered a proper article of traffic, and for staple articles paid cash, if required. In this way he soon drew around him a large amount of business. He remained at the Falls about four years, and then moved his quarters to near the center of the village. Soon after he purchased the stand next door east of Bennett's tavern where he made large additions to the building, and erected a stable and other things necessary for his large business. His trade amounted to about fifty thousand dollars per year. This trade was under the name of Denison & True, afterward Denison, True & Kendall, and at the time of the destructive fire, his brother, Isaac A. Denison, and Joseph A. Kendall occupied the store, and were, with others, great sufferers. Isaac A. Denison and Joseph A. Kendall have resumed trade since the fire, and now occupy the store near the center bridge. They are doing a good business, probably at the rate of thirty thousand dollars per year.
Jeremiah and Edwin W. Howe are carrying on trade in the brick store near the center of the village, built in 1830 and first occupied by Emery Livermore. Jeremiah Howe commenced trade in this store in July, 1835, and has continued since in the same building. His brother, Edwin W. Howe, is now a partner in the business; their trade amounts to something like twenty thousand dollars a year.
James H. Merrill carries on trade in a store built a few years since by George J. Ordway. He deals in English and West India goods and ready made clothing ; does a pretty good business, amounting, probably, to eight thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars per year.
Ebenezer C. Shackley and Samuel Favor trade near the head of the village. They keep a good assortment of articles of almost all kinds, and do a thriving business, probably about ten thousand dollars or fifteen thousand dollars per year. Among their stock is a good assortment of joiner's tools and hardware.
James Crockett trades at the head of the village, and has traded here for many years. He never kept a large stock of goods, but does a steady, snug little business, and probably makes as good a living as any of them. He is the town agent for selling spirituous liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes. He has long been licensed as a retailer, and is as careful and discreet in selling the article as the most fastidious could wish. When his father, Joshua Crockett, moved into the place, he was a small boy, and has seen the town grow up to its present state. In 1817, he was chosen constable and collector of taxes, and since that time has collected the taxes twenty-three years, and has been constable ever since, and coroner for many years also; and when the taxes were collected, the money was always put in the right place, and that is saying considerable.
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
The tanning business is carried on largely in the village by Mark P. Smith. He com- menced in 1841 with fifteen pits, and has been making additions to his buildings and pits ever since ; at the present time he has fifty-six pits. He takes in four hundred slaughter hides yearly, and tans at least one thousand seven hundred hides and four hundred calf-skins annually. He uses two hundred cords of bark and two hundred dollars worth of oil and tallow in finishing his leather.
Ebenezer Hobbs, the third child born in Rustfield, has carried on the blacksmith and plow business for many years. He makes from fifty to one hundred and fifty plows annually ; and from 1820 up to 1842, when the old-fashioned plows were used, he made many more than that number. He has done a large business in ironing carriages and sleighs. For several years he has had a small foundry, and makes his own castings.
The first plow ever made, or used, in the place was constructed for Mr. Dudley Pike. In the spring of 1790, Anthony and Nathaniel Bennett came up from New Gloucester to look out land, and went to Dudley Pike's to stay over night, on their arrival in Rustfield. After exploring and selecting their lots, they returned to the same hospitable cabin for another night's lodging before returning home. Mr. Pike happened to have a set of old plow-irons, and they tarried another day with their host, and made a plow for him, which was a very valuable acquisition to his new farm, and probably did not come amiss to his few neighbors.
Horatio G. Cole cards wool and dresses cloth. He came to Norway in 1820, and tended a carding-machine a few years for Nathaniel Bennett, near the grist-mill; he then bought the machine, and afterward purchased the privilege where Bailey Bodwell first erected clothier's works, and since has carried on both branches. He cards, or has carded, from fifteen thou- sand to twenty thousand pounds of wool annually; but carding and cloth-dressing are not so fashionable as they were thirty years ago.
Solomon S. Hall manufactures six hundred or more pairs of boots and shoes annually. Lee Mixer has done a large business in the shoe line, probably to the amount of four thou- sand dollars per year. Hawkins & Stearns do about two thousand five hundred dollars per year. Many others in different parts of the town do much custom work, and use a large quantity of leather. Benjamin Tucker Jr. works at the harness-making and carriage-trim- ming business, to the amount of five hundred dollars annually.
Thomas H. Kelley, tailor, cuts up cloth. The amount of work done in his shop probably amounts to two thousand dollars, or more, annually./
An apothecary shop is kept by Robert Noyes in the old store first built by William Reed; but the building has a large addition to its former size, and is fitted up in good style. Amount of drugs and medicines sold annually, one thousand dollars. In the same building is a book- store and bindery, managed by Robert Noyes and George L. Beal ; amount of business about one thousand dollars annually.
Bulpit & Barnard, formerly of Boston, carry on a large business, for a country place, in the cabinet and furniture manufacture. They have very nice machinery for doing much of the labor, and can probably sell furniture cheaper, for the quality, than any other concern of the kind in this section of the country. They turn out about fifteen thousand dollars' worth annually.
The mills at the head of the village do a good business. The grist-mill grinds from ten to sixteen thousand bushels per year, and sometimes more, and the saw-mill cuts out from two to three hundred thousand of lumber per year. There are four other saw-mills in the town beside those at the village and the falls, viz .: Colonel John Millet's, on the outlet of North
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Pond, which cuts out from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand annually ; Holden's mill, on Crooked River, which saws from two hundred to eight or ten hundred thousand per year, with a shingle-machine which manufactures from two hundred to six or eight hundred thousand of shingles annually. Another saw-m ill and shingle -machine stands on the Upton Brook, and does considerable business. The latter mill, as previously stated, has been three times destroyed by fire, and Holden's mill once burnt. Jonathan Swift, Esq., has a grist-mill, and a shingle-machine near the old Upton privilege, which do some business, but the stream, being small, does not afford a sufficient supply of water in dry times. Captain Richard Lom- bard has a saw-mill on the Everett Brook, and cuts a large quantity of lumber each spring.
In 1847, Charles P. Kimball came into Norway Village, and commenced the sleigh and carriage making business. At first, he had from two to four hands employed in his shop, and had his iron work done in other shops; but his work proving quite.satisfactory to purchasers, he gradually increased his help, from six to fifteen or more hands. In the spring of 1850, he purchased a water privilege near Mr Cole's works, and erected a large shop, one hundred feet by thirty-two, and three stories high ; the lower story is built of split stone and used for the blacksmith shop, where he has all his sleighs and carriages ironed under his own direction; the machinery of the establishment probably cost more than two thousand dollars. He now employs about forty hands in all the departments of his business, that is, on the wood-work, ironing, painting, and trimming. He uses a large amount of lumber, coal, leather, paints, oil, and varnish, and sells annually more than one hundred wheel carriages, and two or three times that number of sleighs, besides doing a great deal of small jobbing and repairing. His carriages and sleighs go into almost every part of the State, and many into New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He has recently established a depository for his carriages in Portland, and has a salesman to sell the same, as opportunity shall offer. Last year he purchased the old stand where William Cox formerly traded and lived, and has almost built the store anew, and fitted it up in a handsome style for the purpose of trade. The old Cox house, it will be recollected, was the first two-story building erected in the village, and was occupied by Mr. Cox from 1808 to 1843. While trading here, he sold a great amount of goods and accumulated a decent property, besides bringing up a large family of children.
Major Henry W. Millett kills and cuts up from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty head of beef cattle, forty or fifty hogs, one hundred and fifty veal calves, and from six hundred to one thousand sheep and lambs annually, and keeps his meat carriage running sufficiently to supply the needy and destitute. And near Major Millett lives Josiah Munroe, a baker, who uses from eight to ten barrels of flour per week, and, sometimes, more.
There are a number of blacksmiths in town, several of whom are in the village : E. G. Allen, Amos T. Murphy, Hosea B. Bisbee, Joshua B. Stuart, Sumner Hale, William Hayes, Dudley Woodbridge, and P. D. Judkins. Amos T. Murphy now owns the same anvil and bellows used by the first blacksmith in town, Benjamin Witt.
There are three watch-menders and jewelers near the central part of the village, viz .: Simeon Walton, old, honest, and experienced - he also rings the bell, and is always very exact about the time; C. B. Coffin works in the same shop with Mr. Walton, and William M. Cushman's sign is near the apothecary store.
Loren H. Wrisley manufactures rifles, fowling-pieces, pistols, and many other things in his line, and all work goes out of his hands in a highly-finished style.
Jeremiah Hobbs, C. W. Hobbs, and Alanson B. Watson, make pumps and lay aqueducts.
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
Thomas Higgins has an establishment at the head of the village for working tin and sheet- iron.
In short, we have mechanics and workmen that can furnish almost any article, from a tin whistle to an omnibus, and even to a book, as this book is entirely of home-manufacture. The materials for the work had their origin in Norway; the writer, the paper-maker, the printer, and the book-binders, are all of Norway.
E. P. Fitz is a glazier, painter, and paper-hanger of the first order; his graining on inside finishing looks rich and beautiful.
The town is well supplied with carpenters and house-joiners. The following are in and about the village : Enoch L. Knight, Granville L. Reed, Richard Evans, J. A. Small, Lorenzo Hathaway, James S. Greenleaf, Stephen Greenleaf Jr., Ansel Dinsmore, George Jackson, John Deering, Amos Ordway. George W. Sholes, Ephraim H. Brown, Otis F. Mixer, and George W. Mann, sash, door, and blind-maker; in other parts of the town are, Colonel Amos F. Noyes, Henry Small, Isaac N. Small, Samuel B. Gurney, Captain John Whitmarsh, Clark Knight, Lemuel Lovejoy, Thomas Lovejoy, Captain Cephas Sampson, Theodore L. Lassell, Eben Marston, and some others who do common work.
I here give the names of such of the past and present traders of Norway as can be recol- lected, without pretending to give dates as to the time when, or how long they were in busi- ness: James Kettle, William Reed, William Hobbs, Joshua Smith, Daniel Smith, William Cox, Increase Robinson, Allan Bartlett, Jacob French, Jeremiah Mitchell, Edward Mitchell, Aaron Wilkins, William Pingree, Jonathan Swift, Ansel Field, Job E. Stevens, John B. Ford, Samuel Dunn, Jonathan Stevens, Asa Barton, Emery Livermore, George J. Ordway, Stephen Cummings, Ichabod Bartlett, Lemuel Bartlett, Anthony Bennett, David Smith, Jona- than B. Smith, Lee Mixer, Samuel Houghton, John Tucker, Stephen Greenleaf Jr., William E. Goodnow, William Frost 3d, William Hayes, Otis True, Josephus Harris, Cyrus Thayer, Daniel Hubbard, Jotham Goodnow, James N. Hall, Moses G. Dow, David R. Holden, Moses A. Young, Bailey Bodwell, Ezra Jewell, James Crockett, Henry L. Crockett, Ebenezer C. Shackley, Samuel Favor, Adna C. Denison, Clark P. True, Elhanan W. Fyler, Isaac A. Denison, Joseph A. Kendall, Franklin Manning, Jeremiah Howe, Edwin W. Howe, Charles P. Kimball, Martin L. Burr, Charles Tubbs, Orin Tubbs, Nathan Noble, William Hor, Newton Swift, David Crockett, Elijah R. Merrill, Henry Upton, James H. Merrill, William Foster, James French Jr., George French, Asa Noyes, Joseph Bennett, William Buck, Will- iam Howe, Kendall Deering, Henry Houghton, Francis H. Whitman, George A. Frost, George W. Knight, Charles Penley, James Tubbs, David N. Cushman. In addition to this long list, a large number of females have kept milliners' shops, for furnishing articles in the female department.
Jonathan B. Smith has several acres covered with fruit trees, mostly of the apple kind, and probably has of all kinds, nearly, or quite, half a million. They are mostly budded or grafted, of all ages and sizes, from the little pips of one year old, up to a handsome size for transplanting, and of the best standard kinds of fruit.
Among other improvements in the town and village, is a first-rate engine for extinguishing fires. Although it is desirable to have but little use for it ; yet, should another calamitous fire like that of last fall happen, we hope it may be instrumental in saving much property from the devouring element. The two village school districts have become a corporate body for the purpose of procuring an engine, and the town very liberally voted to pay five hundred dollars toward the same; and we fervently hope no tax-payer will ever have cause to regret
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
the appropriation. It is also hoped that the members of the engine company may never grow cold in their attachment to the " Oxford Bear."
Our institution of learning is incorporated under the title of " The Norway Liberal Insti- tute." The building is large and commodious, stands on a very dry and handsome elevation, open to a good, wholesome circulation of pure air, and seems every way fitted, under proper management, combined with a proper disposition in the students, to be a fine place for the acquisition of useful knowledge. It was opened in 1847 under favorable auspices. In a catalogue for that year, I find the teachers were as follows : Ebenezer P. Hinds, principal ; Jacob W. Brown, vice principal; John O. Coolidge, Charles H. Nickerson, Silas S. Gifford, Lemuel Bourne, assistants; Isaiah H. Baker, teacher of penmanship; Miss Mary F. Chase, preceptress ; Miss Mary A. A. Additon, teacher of music; Miss Anne N. Deering, teacher of drawing and painting.
The number of male students was eighty-three; females, ninety-one; total, one hundred and seventy-four. In 1848-49, the school was under the direction of J. G. Eveleth, princi- pal; Walter M. Hatch, assistant; and Miss Nancy F. Shaw in the female department. In 1850, the school was taught by Mark H. Dunnell, principal; Thomas F. Barton, Warren F. Barnes, assistants; and Miss Catherine Woodman in the female department. Such other assistants were employed, as were necessary for the instruction of the various branche# required to be taught in the institution.
The present teachers in the Institute are William D. Putnam, principal, and Miss Emeline F. Wright, assistant. It is presumed that the advantages for students, male and female, are equal, at least, to any institution in this section of the country.
The town has a small school fund, the interest amounting annually to thirteen dollars and seventy cents, which accrued from the sale of some land granted to the town by the legisla- ture of Massachusetts, prior to our separation from that State.
Half a century ago our beautiful village consisted of a rude corn-mill, a saw-mill, a black- smith's shop, and one store, where was kept for sale, rum, molasses, sugar, (mostly maple sugar,) a little tea and coffee, tobacco, salt, salt-fish, and a few other groceries; a little calico, (oftentimes purchased by the pattern, say six yards to a pattern in those days,) a little India cotton shirting and sheeting, a bag of cotton-wool, as it was then called, and other little things to make up an assortment; and was, finally, a pretty good store for that day. There was no school-house in the village at that time, and but two in the whole town. Houses were small, poor, and far between, with here and there a barn; and most of the new farms were dotted with a log house and a log hovel, and many with nothing but a rude hut to afford shelter to the brawny laborer who was reclaiming the land from the wilderness. Roads were few and poor, and the vehicles of conveyance poorer. 'The new settlers generally had large families of half-clad, hungry children around them, and everything wore the aspect of poverty and want.
But where, now, are the first founders of our town? Where the Rusts and Cummingses, the Eastmans, the Stevenses, the Hobbses, the Bartletts, the Parsonses, the Witts, the Milletts, the Smiths, the Woodmans, the Pikes, the Herrings, the Nobles, the Fullers, the Merriams, the Bennetts, the Uptons, the Fosters, the Holts, the Noyeses, the Sheds, the Farrars, the Reeds, the Crocketts, the venerable Ames, with a host of other equally venerable and meritorious names, who bore the heat and burden of the day in the settlement of this town and village? They have gone to that bourne from whence no traveler returns ! Let us erect a monument of gratitude in our hearts to perpetuate the remembrance of the founders
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HISTORY OF NORWAY.
of this our beautiful town, who so nobly battled with hardships, toil, and sometimes hunger and cold, in subduing a wilderness, that they might leave to their posterity a land flowing with milk and honey. And may posterity learn wisdom and prudence from their departed ancestors, covering with the mantle of charity their faults and frailties, if any they had, and imitating and multiplying their praiseworthy acts.
Now let us briefly recapitulate the advantages, improvements, and conveniences which we enjoy, and see if we, as a community, have ground for an honest pride, and cause for great thankfulness for our present situation and prospects, when compared with former times. We have fourteen school-houses, a splendid academy, five meeting-houses, twelve or fifteen stores, ten or more blacksmith's shops, two iron foundries, seven saw-mills, two grist-mills, clapboard, shingle, and lath-machines, plow manufactory, one large carriage manufactory, beside several smaller ones, goldsmith's and gunsmith's shops, milliner's and dress-maker's shops, large shoe and boot establishments, beside many other smaller establishments for the accommodation of different parts of the town, a large furniture warehouse, a printing-press, and weekly newspaper, a large paper-mill of the latest improvement, an extensive tannery, apothecary, and barber's shops, a book-bindery, carding and clothier's mills, and tailors to work up the cloth in as good as Boston or New York style, two post-offices, three attorneys' offices, all ably filled, three regularly educated physicians, all in deservedly high repute, dentists, and patent medicines almost anywhere, a splendid hotel in the village, with a gentle- manly landlord, a baker and butcher to supply the daily wants of the hungry, beside many other things necessary and convenient.
CHAPTER XIV.
ANNALS CONTINUED.
1853
VOTED that school districts choose their own agents. Raised for support of poor one thousand dollars ; highways two thousand dollars ; for schools nine hundred and fifty dollars. In the warrant this year, was an article "to see if the town will vote that one tier of lots be set off from the easterly side of Waterford and annexed to Norway." The article was not acted upon. The Pennesseewassee Club of Temperance Watchmen dedicated their hall June 16th. Charles Parkhurst, printer, died July 6th. Other deaths this year were as follows : August 27th, Luther P. Hayes, aged eighteen. September 29th, Franklin Manning, aged forty-five ; Jonathan B. Smith, aged fifty-three; Austin Buck, aged seventy-two. December 9th, James S. Crockett, aged twenty-six. November 24th, in Michigan, James Bickford formerly of Norway, aged eighty-four. It is proper to state that the lists of deaths in the preceding pages, from 1820 to 1852, were taken from Noyes' History, and were taken from the diary of the late Mrs. Mercy, widow of Levi Whitman.
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