USA > Maine > Aroostook County > Caribou > Early history of Caribou, Maine : 1843-1895 > Part 3
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This house was burned in 1860 but it was soon replaced by the ell of the much larger house now standing. A good barn was built the summer of 1852 and much enlarged in later years. (This was burned in 1933 and smaller buildings now take its place.) In 1886 Jacob sold the homestead farm to his son Haines, and bought a small farm on outer Sweden Street where he lived until his death in 1891, aged 66 years. His wife lived until October, 1920, 93 years of age, at the home of her son Haines in Fillmore, California, (where she was visiting) but brought home to be buried be- side her husband in the Evergreen Cemetery.
Jacob Hardison paid the state $86.45 for the farm which was sold in later years for $22,500. The present owner is J. Philip Jacobs and it is one of the best farms in the county at the present day.
Jacob's children were Waldo, Lowell, Haines, Parker and Allen, all of whom married except Waldo, the eldest, and all but Parker moved to California, drawn by many relatives living there. Haines married May, daughter of Luther Merrill, thus uniting two of the old pioneer families, and in later life moved to California. Parker was one of the first State Highway Commissioners and always made Caribou his home.
(Grover Merrill Hardison, long-time Town man- ager of Caribou is one of the comparatively few des- cendants of Jacob Hardison now left in the town. He is the great-grandson of Ivory Hardison, grandson of Jacob - also of Luther Merrill - and son of Haines and May Merrill Hardison. He married Jennie Lewis, daughter of Clayton Lewis of Caribou)
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1851
In the fall of 1851, Hiram Hall returned to Buck- field, his old home, abandoning the tavern, and not long after this the little village on the Caribou stream, having the mills, became the trade center. Messrs. Collins and Vaughan employed a large number of men in the woods around their mills, which made a nice little business for them.
1852
In 1852 the first real schoolhouse was built with funds raised by private subscription on land belonging to Winslow Hall about where Luther Hall's house now stands. Pupils from all parts of the plantation - six miles in width by twelve miles in length - were ob- liged to go there to school as there was no other school in the plantation. It was a long distance to travel for some of the scholars. The first teacher in this new schoolhouse was Miss Mary Fowler.
Miss Fowler, a daughter of Deacon E. S. Fowler, then of Fort Fairfield, afterwards married Franklin
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Smiley, a brother of Mrs. Jacob Hardison, Sidney Smiley (Mrs. Hardison's father) having followed with his family not long after his daughter's coming, and settling on the "old Washburn road".
To go back a little to some other farms which have not been mentioned. One was the farm of Oliver Hardison - one of the sons of Ivory - at the top of the hill on the south side of the Prestile Gully, once the terror of all travellers, now a harmless little down- ward grade in the road as it crosses the Prestile Brook. Oliver Hardison and his family have all passed away and for many years it has been called the Orin Hatch farm, now occupied by his daughter, Mildred.
Ai, another son of Ivory, took up a farm on Green Ridge - across the river - when he was married, and they remained there all their lives, bringing up a fine family of children; descendants all living in California.
David and Harvey Collins, brothers of Samuel, came not long after him, and David settled on a lot at the mouth of Otter Brook. A few years later, in 1854, he built a dam and a shingle mill where was afterward the Crockett woolen mill. Harvey Collins took up a farm on the Van Buren road about a mile north of the Settlement and married a niece of Mrs. Ivory Hardison but they did not remain in Aroostook very long; mov- ing West.
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In 1852 the Messrs. Collins and Vaughan built a tannery on the Caribou stream, abutting the bridge, opposite the gristmill, the building occupied so many years by George O. Smith. This tannery was operated by William Farrell - father of Elbridge Farrell so well known as a business man of Caribou in later years - who bought hides of the farmers and also of the lumbermen that sometimes drove beef cattle into the woods to be slaughtered. Mr. Farrell also manufac- tured the leather into thick boots for the lumber trade.
1855
Collins and Vaughan also built about this time on land in front of the present Universalist Church a blacksmith shop - the first in the township - and employed Benjamin Annas, who was the first black- smith, a very necessary man now - as quite a num- ber of horses were being brought in for work in the woods.
In 1855 the Messrs. Collins and Vaughan built the first store in the little village on the upper half of the lot (now occupied by the Bouchard block) standing on a little higher ground than their mills, although conveniently near. Here they kept a general stock of goods for their men and, of course, for all the settlers round about.
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1856
In 1856 John L. Smith, another brother-in-law of Captain Dwinal, came from Bethel and took the farm that was bought and somewhat cleared in 1844 by a young man named Morton Taylor. This man lived only two years, dying in 1846 at the home of Abram Parsons - the first death in the township and was buried on his own land, but his body was later taken to Albion, Maine, his old home. This farm is the one so long known in later years as the Libby and King farm, Roy Libby and Carl King being partners in its ownership for some time. In earlier days the farm was long known as the John Irving place, next occu- pied by his son, Henry Irving.
1857
In 1857 Messrs. Collins and Vaughan dissolved the partnership of thirteen years and divided their holdings equally, the Caribou stream as an "imaginary line" between them. Mr. Collins took the saw mill
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first built and most of the land north of the stream (as far as the standpipe of today, to the Letter I line), and west as far as the Farnham Brook, which was still in the dense forest. Mr. Vaughan took the grist mill and most of the land south of the stream, up over the hills to the Jacob Hardison farm and down to the Aroostook River; taking also the little eminence on the north side of the stream, on which the Vaughan House was afterward built.
1524699
In a booklet written by Samuel W. Collins, Jr. (or 3rd) great grandson of the first S. W. Collins - to commemorate the year 1944 as the centennial of the founding of the lumber industry in Caribou by the first S. W. Collins, a noteworthy paragraph is found, especially noteworthy just here as it bears upon the division of property between Collins and Vaughan - usually a quarrelsom affair. It is copied here.
"The firm of Collins and Vaughan was carried on through a truly remarkable relationship. Never was a set of books kept nor even a memorandum made to determine a division of work, property, or profits. Both men worked diligently and in perfect harmony and each took from the till according to his needs. As Vaughan grew older he decided to leave active busi- ness life and invest his accumulated capital. Accord- ingly in 1857, the two partners sat down to divide their property. It was an example of complete trust as the pioneer mill men amiably divided their extensive
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holdings without aid of any sort of paper or calcula- tion."
"A truly remarkable relationship!"
Both men succeeded well in the business they chose. Mr. Collins built a small store just where the Currier & Belyea store is today and remained in busi- ness there some twenty or thirty years then removed to Sweden Street. He also continued in the lumbering industry and the business he founded then is being handed down to succeeding generations, a large and profitable industry covering many acres of land up along the banks of the Caribou stream.
In 1857, Luke and James Smith, brothers of John L. came from Bethel. Luke took up the lot just north of the Columbus Hayford farm in Maysville, and James took a lot on the old Washburn road, later called the Tom Harmon farm, now Roy Whittiers.
John L. Smith bought Winslow Hall's clapboard and planing mill and adapted it to long lumber. He al- so had a little store beside the mill. That year Alonzo Burgess came from Rockland and settled on the old Washburn road where their relatives, the Smileys, parents of Mrs. Jacob Hardison, had settled in 1853.
JOSEPH B. HALL
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Winslow Hall, his son, Joseph B. and one of his sons-in-law, Joseph W. Hines had been gradually selling out, and moving to Presque Isle, a little older and larger settlement. Winslow Hall and Hines opened the third store in Presque Isle. Joseph B. started a newspaper, the Aroostook Pioneer, in Presque Isle in 1857 in company with W. S. Gilman, over Winslow's store but sold his interest to Gilman in 1860 and moved to Portland. However some of the Hall descend- ants came back to Caribou in later years like A. W. and Willis B. Hall.
Now something about the roads or streets in the little village of Lyndon at this time. What is now called Water Street led from the Collins and Vaughan mills to the Cochran grist mill and to the Aroostook River, following the north bank of the stream all the way. This was the first road in the village, being a travelled road when the main road was put through to Van Buren in 1845. A bridge across the Caribou stream at the Collins and Vaughan gristmill was built as a part of the new road the same year (in 1845). Bridge Street came a little later to accommodate users of the ferry between the mouth of the Caribou stream and the foot of the Fort Fairfield road across the river. Bridge Street followed the south side of the stream to the river. At the corner now occupied by the Nylander Museum a road was cut across from the main road to join Bridge Street; accommodating the settlers on the Presque Isle road wishing to take the ferry. At the Cochran mill - on the site of the later Holmes Starch Factory - one could ford the stream
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to strike Water Street; and pedestrians used a foot bridge over the little dam Cochran had built.
A spring between the Sweden Street and the Vaughan Avenue of the present day, running from Sweden Street around in front of the Vaughan House to Main Street, furnished the village with drinking water, a wooden pipe running from there to a town watering trough located at the junction of Main and Water streets. This wooden watering trough (will the young people of the present day, reading this, know what a watering trough is?) was later moved across the street to the side of the Vaughan House stairs leading to Main Street.
A little one-room schoolhouse was built, in 1857 at a cost of $375, where now stands the modern brick building known as the Sincock School. This was the first school building in the present village and was used for every purpose, church services of all denom- inations and meetings of all kinds.
1858
In the fall of 1858, David F. Adams who came in 1844 and settled on the lot now called the Arthur Thomas farm, decided to build a little store "down-
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town". He had begun selling supplies from the farm homestead to his workmen and others for some time and now felt that the time had come for him to build a regular store - the second store in the village. It was first located in the middle of the present Main Street at the top of the Mill Hill and the road wound around it but in 1861 the road was straightened and the store was moved across the street to the location where it was a landmark for many years. (After undergoing various vicissitudes the "old Adams store" was removed in recent years from the old location at the junction of Main and Bridge streets, and a mod- ern filling station takes its place) .
Mr. Adams continued in business in this "little red store" for many years, in fact until his death, carry- ing a general stock from calico to molasses taking in exchange shaved shingles, buckwheat, grain and the like. He built a dwelling house on the site of the Ny- lander Museum, at the top of the hill just above the store, in 1861. He afterwards enlarged it and operated it as a hotel - the Adams House - for a number of years with the assistance of his son, his son's wife, and his grandons. He then retired to a new house he had built on the next south. Here he and his wife lived until their decease, then the house passed into the hands of James Hayes, a Miramichi lumberman whose family occupied it until his death when they moved away. (The house is now occupied by Earl Lombard.)
Te tell a little more about Mr. Adams. He was a practical surveyor and a useful citizen in a new community, running the lines for the incoming settlers buying lands. He was also a Justice of the Peace, sol- emnizing many of the early marriages. He was
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a strong character, never to be forgotten by anyone who had ever known him.
He married Dorcas Glines of Rumford and they both belonged to good old Pilgrim stock. They had three children, Weston, Maria, and Martha.
Weston married Amanda Brown, daughter of Reuben Brown, one of the early pioneers, living on the back Presque Isle road; they had three boys, Charles, Delbert Weston and Florus. Delbert was a successful merchant, having a large department store in Augusta for many years; died only a few years ago, leaving two daughters; his wife died several years before.
Maria married 1866 to Alden Green of Houlton, had no children.
Martha, b. 1850 married Lysander Sawin in 1870, had two children, Josephine Gerrish of Brownville and Bangor, Bret Harte, unmarried, died many years ago.
David F. Adams born in Standish, 1813, died 1882, aged 69.
Dorcas, his wife, born in 1811, died 1889, aged 78.
Elder J. P. Roberts came from Hartland, near Pittsfield, in the year 1858 with his wife and part of his family, of which Ida who married Dr. C. F. Thomas, and Frank, a lawyer who married Lilla - A. M. York's eldest daughter - were best known in town. Another daughter was Olive, who married Benj.
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Webb, a Civil War veteran; children, Pearl and Winfield S. Elder Roberts - as part time ministers were called in those days - settled on the east side of the Aroostook River, nearly opposite the Ivory Hardi- son farm. His only means of getting to this farm, or to any of the settlements on the river, Presque Isle, Caribou or Fort Fairfield - the first year of his com- ing, was by boat or ford in summer, or on the ice in winter, until the first ferry was established not long after. Then the first bridge across the river at Caribou was built in 1863, the state appropriating one-half the cost, and the citizens of the township con- tributing the other half. This bridge of course made life easier for those living on the east side of the river.
In passing it may be mentioned here that this wooden bridge lasted 28 years until 1891 when it was destroyed by fire. An iron bridge was started late that year and completed in 1892, during which interval a ferry service was again established in practically the same place as where the old ferry ran.
A. M. York came from Bethel in 1858 and bought from Mr. Vaughan the land extending from the school- house lot - sold previously - to the north line of Jacob Hardison's farm. Mr. York was an experienced builder and was kept busy with the work then going on in the settlement; first a house for himself (next to
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the schoolhouse lot) then brought his family here the next summer. Two years afterward, in 1861, Mr. York sold from his land a small lot which was the beginning of Evergreen Cemetery that has received many addi- tions of land on the south and west as the years went by. The Yorks had four children, Frank, Fred, Lilla and Nellie, all now deceased.
Sylvester Washburn came from Canton - another Oxford County town - in 1858 - and buying land of W. A. Vaughan in September of that year immediately built a sash and blind factory where the Hutchinson Steam Laundry now stands. The next year, 1859, Mr. Washburn bought of Mr. Bickford the lot above the Bickford home and built himself a cottage on top of the hill, which faced the lot where the Nylander Mus- eum now stands. In 1865 he sold this house to John L. Smith who enlarged it and opened a small hotel - called the Caribou House. In 1873 Mr. Washburn bought land over the river just opposite the village for $897. - a bargain! This land stretched from the bank of the river up over the Washburn Hill to the Nathan Lufkin farm. The first house on the right hand side after crossing the C. P. R. R. track is the house Mr. Washburn built for a home.
This farm was occupied for many years by his son, Ernest, who married his neighbor's daughter, Emily Goud. Ernest built a spacious home half way up the hill which afforded a beautiful view of the town and river. In later years the farm was sold to Jerry Smith.
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Their children were: Sarah who married Ezra Briggs; Avis, not married; Lewis, married, died in 1935; Russell, married Gertrude Elliot, lives in New Hampshire; and Leila, unmarried. The wife and mother, Emily Washburn, died in October 1896. Ernest died in 1906.
Sylvester Washburn's other children were George, Alice and Gertrude. George married Leila Powers, Alice married John Haley of Fort Fairfield, Gertrude married Carl Ullrich.
Benjamin O. Barrows of Rockland came in 1858 and began to build the Dr. Thomas home on South Main Street but the house was not finished for several years thereafter, Barrows going away.
In 1858, fifteen years after the coming of the first settlers, there were only two stores in the village ; the Collins and Vaughan store -the first built - on the north side of the stream and the Adams store on the south side, and five dwelling houses. These were- not counting the old Cochran log house on Water Street - the Jim Smith house on Myrtle (now Grove) Street; the first Collins house, later moved to the opposite side of street, long called the Henrietta Hall house ; the new Collins house on present location ; the Bickford house on the corner of Main and Grove streets; and the Haskell Farnham house - so long known as the Blake Roberts house. The growth of the village was slow.
The rest of the settlers were living on farms, clearing their lands, planting crops and building homes. The clearings west of the village extended only to
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where the Court House now stands; those north only
to where the standpipe is today - the Letter I line ; beyond these points were unbroken forests. Those south of the village were the most numerous, extend- ing - even then beyond the town line between Presque Isle (or Maysville rather) and Plantation Letter H - which, as yet, had no other name.
Such was the village in 1858. That year there were three months of school in the new schoolhouse, and the teachers' board was sold to the lowest bidder. The first teacher was boarded for $1.50 a week; wood for the winter term - seven cords - was secured for the sum of 4.75, sixty-eight cents a cord !
1859
Meanwhile the taking up of farms continued quite steadily. Perez Thomas, whose wife was a sister of George and Cephas Sampson, came from Hartford in 1859 and bought the David Adams farm. Benjamin and Moses, sons of Perez Thomas were single men when they came, but ibefore long they married Sarah and Harriet Small, daughters of Robert Small, a second cousin of Cyrus. Robert came from Limington, Maine and bought the farm first taken up by Harvey Ormsby, Cephas Sampson had already married Irene, Robert Small's eldest daughter. So it came about that
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an uncle and two nephews married three sisters, Cephas Sampson being a brother of Mrs. Perez Thomas, the mother of Moses and Benjamin.
Another sister, Ruth Small, married Henry Allyn who came about that time from Chelsea, Mass. and who was a most useful citizen in the little settlement. He had been a hospital nurse and the medical know- ledge gained in that capacity made him exactly what the community most needed at that time. He might be called the first doctor (a homeopath) though not a medical graduate. Mr. Allyn built himself a house on the high bank of Water Street facing the stream and kept a tailor shop there, also a "photograph gallery" where the early citizens and their families had their tintypes taken. He may be said to have had many and diversified talents.
Woodland was surveyed in this year, 1859, and lots were taken there by the Withees of Harmony, Benja- min and Moses Thomas (sons of Perez), Fred Lufkin, Edward Washburn, Ximenes Philbrick and William Bickford, all arriving in 1859 or 1860.
Also in 1859 there came on a prospecting trip, a party of seven men from Bethel: Joseph Goud, his father-in-law John Bradbury, Hazen Keech, Mr. Rich- ardson, Nathan Reynolds, his son Otis and his son-in-
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law, Moses Coburn. Settlers were now taking more lots on the east side of the river, and the Reynolds and Coburns took lots in the Green Ridge district, bring- ing their families the next year.
Joseph Goud and John Bradbury came from Bethel and took up lots on the "old Washburn road", making the farm now owned by F. J. Balckstone. Mr. Goud had married Sarah Bradbury, daughter of John Bradbury in Bethel, and all their children were born there, coming to Aroostook with their parents. They were as follows: Philander, Arthur, Jessie, Emily and Frank.
Philander, married Aurelia Patterson of Belfast; children: Louise died young; Margaret, living in Cari- bou, unmarried; Fred, married Alyne Hammond of Van Buren now living in Portland.
Arthur, married Eliza, daughter of J. D. Teague ; children : Zella, married L. H. Denton, living in Sara- toga Springs, N. Y .; Mary, married to R. N. L. Brown, living in Caribou ; Leon, living in Alamo, Texas ; Carroll living in Silverdale, Washington; Lyman, living in L. I., New York.
Jessie, married to Lewis Townes, no children, moved to Indiana where Lewis died, Jessie returned to Caribou, died there.
Emily, married Ernest Washburn, son of Sylvester Frank, died in his youth.
Joseph Goud, born in 1820, died in 1878 Sarah, his wife, born in 1826, died in 1890
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Arthur Goud, born in 1849, died in 1939 Eliza, his wife, born in 1849, died in 1904
Township Letter H became the town of Lyndon by incorporation on April 5th 1859. In 1860 the popu- lation was still very small, only 297, after seventeen years of settlement, and the valuation was $23,694. The first selectmen elected in 1859 were Amos Dwinal, David F. Adams and Henry L. Rolf. The members of the second board of selectmen elected in 1860 were Amos Dwinal, S. W. Collins and Cephas Sampson.
The following selectmen were elected for the four ensuing years : 1861 - Amos Dwinal, Cephas Sampson, and Jacob Hardison. 1862 - Cephas Sampson, Jacob Hardison, and Cyrus Small. 1863-Cyrus Small, Joseph Goud, and John T. Pike. 1864 - Cyrus Small, S. W. Collins and John Colby Whittier.
The first Town Fathers of Caribou! Fine men all of them.
For many years now, settlers had been coming up the St. John River to Woodstock and Andover, and up the Aroostook River, taking farms along the rich, alluvial flats on both sides of the river. Notable among these were the owners of fine farms between Fort Fairfield and Caribou. Newman, James, and Fred Doyle, grandsons of Edward Doyle of Fredericton, N. B. Descendants of this family are all prominent business men in Aroostook today.
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Among others of the early settlers coming from New Brunswick was Thomas Vance, later known to all as "Tommie Vance", who came in the early '50s with his wife and ten children and settled on the land just below and across the road from Abram Parsons. Four of his sons enlisted and served in the Civil War, three of them dying in the South and one returning at the close of the war to die in a very short time from the effects of life in Libby Prison.
In 1877 George H. Ginn, a young man of eighteen came from Canada to work for Mr Vance, and later he married Mr. Vance's grand-daughter, Rebecca Parsons. His daughter Rebecca Vance, had married John Parsons - a son of Abram Parsons, pioneer settler - so their daughter Rebecca Parsons - the wife of George Ginn - was the granddaughter of Abram Parsons as well as of Thomas Vance.
In a very short time the farm was divided, the north half being taken over by Edwin H. Vance, the only surviving member of Thomas Vance's family at that time. The south half was taken by George Ginn with whom Thomas lived until the time of his death about eight years later. (At the present time the Ginn farm is owned by Jack Bishop and the Vance half by Ernest Hitchings. Among the descendants of Thomas Vance still living in Caribou is one grandson, Seneca Vance, and several great grandsons all of whom are prosperous farmers of this day and age.)
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