USA > Maine > Aroostook County > Caribou > Early history of Caribou, Maine : 1843-1895 > Part 7
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Will Oak was always connected with the firm of S. W. Collins & Son and remained in Caribou until his death. His first wife was Margaret Nelson of Presque Isle; his second was Faustina Briggs, (daughter of Lloyd Briggs) who survives him.
Fred, the youngest of these three Oak brothers, clerked for Mr. Clark some sixteen years, then in 1894 when Mr. Clark gave up the shoe business for "dry goods" Fred opened a shoe store for himself on Swe- den Street, in the Jones and Lowney Building (now occupied by the Sears Roebuck Company). Here he re- mained many years, until within a very few years of his death. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Augustus Allen of Maysville and built a house on High
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Street corner of Glenn Street, where they lived and died; they had two sons, Malcolm and Allen, who left Caribou as soon as they left school. All of the Oak brothers who came to Aroostook married daughters of early pioneers of the region, showing excellent taste in their selection.
Mr. and Mrs. Noah Johnson of Garland built themselves a house just west of Samuel Taylor, who lived at the end of High Street. Mr. Johnson kept a general store in the Bartlett block for several years then retired from business, being no longer young. Samuel Taylor, coming from Burlington, Penobscot County about this time went into business in the Vaughan store on the corner now occupied by the Bouchard block. He continued in this business quite a few years, then retired. Just at this period the major- ity of newcomers seemed to be coming from Penobscot County rather than from Oxford County as at first.
1879
In 1879, Freeland Jones and Eben W. Lowney coming from Bangor, bought the store on Sweden Street, which they afterwards sold to Fred Oak when he went into business for himself. This building origi- nally had been built by Fremont Small and used as a carriage shop. It was set up on cedar posts five or six
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feet above the ground, which was a cedar swamp, and reached by a long flight of steps at each end of the platform running across the front of the building.
Messrs. Jones and Lowney built this building over, filling in a large part of the swamp in front of the store, greatly reducing the number of stairs re- quired to reach it, and opened a "general store"-the first on Sweden Street. At that time there were only three houses between their store and Farnham Brook (where Haskell Farnham had taken up a farm on the edge of the clearing) ; Mrs. Ellis' (later called the Up- ham house, now moved to Prospect Street) ; Frank Record's; and the James Page house, then just built.
Freeland Jones married Mabel, Mr. Vaughan's second daughter, bought the Ellis house on Sweden St. for a home and there their three sons, Vaughan, Lawrence and Austin were born. In 1891 Mr. Jones sold his house and went back to Bangor to settle the estate of his father, Peleg Jones, and remained there. Eben Lowney married Nell Mosher of Presque Isle; they had three children Harold, Waldo and Helen. Mr. Lowney went back to Bangor in later years but two of his children, Waldo and Helen Ricker have remained in Caribou, Harold has lived in Woodstock, N. B. for many years. Their father built the house on High St. now occupied by Mrs. Charles Stetson.
In 1879 L. R. King built another business building on the lot where the Mitton block now stands. This block at that time was considered a large and imposing building three stories in height, containing two stores on first floor, offices on second floor, and an I. O. O. F. hall on the third floor. Orman Oak (a cousin
KING BLOCK - 1880
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of Charles, Will and Fred Oak), who had just come from Garland, took the upper store in which he opened a harness shop, the first in town, and W. C. Spaulding took the lower or corner store for his hardware busi- ness.
This block was badly damaged by fire several times during the intervening years and replaced the last time, after the disastrous fire of 1918, by a hand- some brick block built by Henry S. Mitton. Mr. Mitton was connected first with the firm of Shaw and Mitton (Gorham Shaw and Henry Mitton) established in 1895; later, with the firm of Mitton, Poland and Bish- op, the last two named being younger men, both of which firms occupied the Water Street store for many years, also engaging in many other lines of business).
1880
In 1880 the first permanent newspaper was start- ed by Samuel W. Mathews, a lawyer from Hampden who had come to Caribou the fall of 1879 to look about. Being impressed with the indications of future growth he decided to remove his family, wife and two daught- ers, May and Harriet, from Hampden to Caribou to make their home and for the practice of his profession. After he came, however, he decided to establish a newspaper, which the town needed much more, and entered immediately upon the work, naming the pap- er "The Ai ostook Republican".
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One of the clippings taken from the first issue of the Aroostook Republican, dated January 14, 1880, giving the shipments from Caribou over the New Brunswick R. R. (now the Canadian Pacific) for the months of October, November and December, 1879, just preceding-three years after the arrival of the . N. B. R. R .- is very interesting to us of the present day. It runs thus: "Shipments over the N. B. R. R. were 1380 M shingles, 18,391 bushels of potatoes, 1192 casks of potato starch, and 12 tons of general mer- chandise". When one takes paper, pencil and the fig- ures of 650 bushels to the average car load, he finds that 18,391 bushels makes only about 28 carloads of potatoes going out in those three months or slightly more than two carloads a week.
Official figures giving the number of carloads of potatoes sent out from Caribou in October, November and December, 1944, as 1764 cars from the three rail- roads running out fo the town, the Bangor and Aroos- took, Canadian Pacific and Aroostook Valley. This approximates 1, 140,000 bushels, which shows by com- parison the immense growth of the potato industry in Caribou.
In 1887 Mr. Matthews was appointed the first Labor Commissioner of Maine, so, although he had been successful in getting the "Republican" well start- ed, he sold the paper to his son-in-law, Alfred Winslow Hall, (grandson of the first Winslow) who had mar- ried Mr. Matthews' elder daughter, May. Mr. Matthews
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Old Grist Mill on bridge with Vaughan House behind
1881
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removed to Augusta, much to the regret of the many friends his genial personality had made for him.
Mr. Hall, always called Win, was a man of much experience in the nwespaper business both in New England and the West, and during the fifteen years of his ownership of the Aroostook Republican he made it a vital force in the growth of the town. In fact, the residents of that period considered the Aroostook Re- publican was the best country newspaper in Maine, if not in the United States. To the "Souvenir Edition" of the paper issued in 1894-with the assistance of Francis Wiggin, a veteran newspaper man-and to various clippings from the Repubican concerning the life of the town found in old scrapbooks, these annals are indebted for many of its facts and dates. It was the most authentic source available, being nearer the ground-the time and place-than any other to be found.
1882
To go back to 1882, J. A. Clark bought, that year, the lot now occupied by the Hackett Block on the corn- er of Main and Sweden streets, moving off the Lowell Hardison store and the Bartlett millinery shop to make room for a building larger than both together. On this lot Mr. Clark erected a three-story wooden block which made a great improvement in the appear-
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ance of the corner and which stood until destroyed by fire in 1916. On the street floor, facing Main Street were two stores, one occupied by Mr. Clark himself and the other by Eugene Pushor, a druggist who had come from Pittsfield to establish the second drug store in town. On the second floor were law offices, occupied at first by George I. Trickey, William P. Allen who came from Lincoln in 1880 and Louis C. Stearns of Bethel, coming in 1882; later, by the law- yers as they came to town.
The third floor was made into a hall where for many years all the entertainments, dances and dancing schools-gatherings of all kinds-were held, even in- cluding the Town meetings and the first sessions of the Superior Court. It would probably be called the Recreation Center if existing in these days.
It seems a pity-in this connection and at this time- not to mention H. Price Webber and his com- pany of players who came annually for twelve or fif- teen years from the middle of the 70s nearly through the 80s and played for a week such thrilling dramas as East Lynne and Uncle Tom's Cabin to delighted audiences of young and old.
In 1882, G. W. P. Jerrard came to Caribou and founded the G. W. P. Jerrard Seed Company, issuing attractive catalogues, someting new then in Aroostook County. He contracted for many potatoes, doing busi- ness on a large scale, and raised many potatoes himself to be sure of the outstanding quality of his seed. The varieties most popular at this time were Early Rose,
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CLARK BLOCK - 1882 Corner of Main and Sweden Streets
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Bliss Triumphs and Cobblers for early seed stock in the South; Green Mountains were the standard all- year-round table stock for the northern markets.
Mr. Jerrard worked up a large seed business and as he was then in affluent circumstances he decided to retire, and sold his business in 1893 to John Jerrard, his nephew, and Harry Smith, both from Bangor, and returned to his home in Penobscot County.
John Jerrard married in 1896 Mabel, daughter of Joseph A. Clark. (They lived in Caribou until 1909 when they, with the Clarks, for reasons of ill health in both families, moved to Santa Paula, Cal., where there was already a little Caribou colony of Hardisons and Teagues drawn there years before by the possibili- ties in fruit growing. John Jerrard died in 1923, Mrs. Jerrard is living in Pomona, Cal., drawn by old Caribou friends ; Mrs. Lottie Pattee, daughter of George Samp- son; Mrs. Sophia Gary, daughter of John L. Smith; and Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Holmes, the former a son of Albe Holmes, the latter a daughter of Levi Gary. The Jerrards had one daughter, Ruth, who is married and living in Massachusetts.)
Harry Smith went back to Bangor, both partners selling out their stock in the Jerrard Seed Company. Haines Hardison and his son-in-law, Edgar Russ, bought the stock and remained partners until Mr. Hardison decided to move to California where so many of his relatives were living, and sold his stock to Carl C. King in 1911. Mr. King and Mr. Russ continued the business of G. W. P. Jerrard Seed Company under the same name until Mr. King's death in 1919, since which time Mr. Russ has been owner and manager of the business.
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A. B. Fisher came in 1882 with his wife and three children, a son and two daughters, and made his home in Caribou ever thereafter. He was an expert electrician, having gained much experience in his na- tive Nova Scotia and in the West, and was exactly what the community needed as electricity was soon to be introduced. The daughters are Mrs. (Tirza) Parker L. Hardison and Mrs. (Evelyn) M. L. Bonney, both widowed, and living in Caribou until very recently, now in Augusta; the son, William H. is a lawyer living in Augusta, an active-retired Justice of the Superior Court of Maine.
Otis Gardner, brother of Mrs. Horace E. Jones, came from Dennysville in the middle eighties and en- tered into business. He brought with him his wife and three children; Margaret, who married Dr. A. J. Tay- lor, son of Samuel Taylor, merchant; Richard, mar- ried Louise B., widow of John S. Spaulding ; and Hope, who married a Portland man and lived there a few years, dying in early womanhood.
Michael A. Barrett came from St. Stephen, N. B. in the early eighties and soon established a Singer Sewing Machine agency-the first in town-in the small stores between the Taylor and the Lowell Hardi- son stores on Main Street. By the introduction of this wonderful labor-saving invention, Mr. Barrett lighten-
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ed the burden of many mothers who had large fami- lies to clothe.
After the Civil War the concerns that had been making uniforms for the soldiers turned their plants and energies into the ready-to-wear clothing field, but their products were slow in reaching Aroostook and most of the clothing worn by men was made by hand, either at home or in the village by tailors of both sex- es, who had the aid of a tailor's goose, giving the "tailored look". Most of the clothes of women and children were made by hand at home with perhaps some help from seamstresses who "went out by the day". The arrival of the sewing machine sped up all this work.
In later years Mr. Barrett abandoned this busi- ness and took up the manufacture of shingles by machine, also starch. In 1908 he bought the beautiful farm of George M. Briggs who was leaving for Cali- fornia with his family to make their home.
Mr. Barrett died in 1919; his wife Marie Cayou- ette, died in 1938. Their children are Corinne, Charles, Antoinette, and Scanlon, now living; two, John and Francoise, deceased.
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1885
From Maine Register of 1885
CARIBOU
Fifty four miles N. W. of Houlton by stage route via Presque Isle. Terminus of stage lines to Van Buren, New Sweden, Houlton and Perham. On New Bruns- wick Railway. Population, 1880, 2756; Polls 527; val- uation $337,338.
Postmaster - Joseph Gary; Lyndon, Grinfill Hall; North Lyndon, Ezekiel LeVasseur; East Lyndon, James Doyle.
Selectmen-E. D. Stiles, E. W. Lowney, A. L. Ireland.
Town Clerk - W. C. Spaulding
Town Treasurer-Herschel D. Collins
School Supervisor - Rev. C. E. Young
Clergymen-C. E. Young, Bap .; W. H. Crawford, Meth.
Lawyers - King & King, C. B. Roberts, George I. Trickey, W. P. Allen, L. C. Stearns, F. M. York.
Physicians - Jefferson Cary, Chas. F. Thomas Merchants- Lufkin & Holmes, Joseph Gary, Samuel Taylor, S. W. Collins & Son, George H. Howe, Noah W. Johnson; general stores.
E. P. Files, dry goods.
J. E. Morrill, W. E. Leonard, Crandall & Co., meats and groceries.
L. W. Sawin, E. H. Pushor, apothecaries.
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C. P. Hussey, fruit and confectionery.
O. Iverson & Co., dining saloon
R. A. Bartlett, millinery. W. C. Spaulding, hardware
J. A. Clark, boots and shoes.
Little field & Co., gents clothing. George Henry, jewelry
T. W. Willis, furniture
E. P. Grimes, shingles ; Singer Mfg. Co., Agt. M. A. Barrett. E. J. Fenderson, ice.
Manufacturers - S. W. Collins & Son, J. W. Gary, lumber and shingles; Warren Runnels, Jas. Calkins, Albe Holmes, shingles.
Jacob Hardison, cheese.
A. Martin, Walter Russ, A. M. Garland ; masons. Moody & Prescott, W. H. Dunbar, (carriage), W.
V. Dunbar, George H. Robinson (house) ; painters. J. H. Lafferty ; carriage trimmers.
G. F. Ellingwood ; millwright. John Anderson; boots and shoes.
Albe Holmes; Caribou Starch Factory, starch.
Oak & Knight, E. G. Farrell; harnesses.
Gerald & Smith, Lucien Small; smiths.
John Sincock, J. H. Gould, J. W. Gary ; gristmills. T. T. Crockett ; woolens. Moody & Prescott, carriages.
Hobbs & Adams, blacksmiths and carriage work.
T. W. Willis, G. B. Cain, J. A. Page, G. F. Elling- wood, Job K. Pike, Herbert Cates, A. M. York, Samuel Little, Ralph Churchill; carpenters.
A. Winberg, tailor.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CARIBOU
Photographer - Edward W. Hall Land Surveyor - Freeland Jones Barber - Charles P. Hussey. Livery Stable - Levi H. Gary & Co. Hotel - Vaughan House, J. E. Morrill, Prop'r.
This will present a picture of Caribou in a new way, giving names of the men carrying on the busi- ness of the town sixty years ago.
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REV. I. E. BILL Pastor of Baptist Church from 1874 to 1880
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CHURCHES
A short history of the Universalist Church of Caribou has been given in the period of 1867 when the first church edifice was built. It is now time to speak of the other churches as they withdrew gradually from the Union Church, as it was first called.
BAPTIST CHURCH
The first to withdraw was the Baptist Church, the oldest church organization in town. The first meet- ing relating to organization was held in June, 1863 in the schoolhouse at what was then known as Lyndon Center. In August of the same year the church was recognized by a Council representing Baptist churches, having at that time, fifteen members. The church was supplied with preaching by missionaries of the Maine Baptist State Convention. Meetings were held at first in the Center schoolhouse, at dwelling houses in diff- erent parts of the town, and later, at the Union Church for about three years.
In December, 1870, the organization called their first pastor, Rev. David Lancaster and held their first meetings in Vaughan's hall. Mr. Lancaster remained two years and the next pastor was Rev. J. S. Dore, who remained only one year on account of ill health. In 1874 the Rev. Ingraham E. Bill, an Englishman, was called and remained until 1880. During his pastor- ate, in 1875, the present site of the Baptist Church came into the possession of the church organization, and under theleadership of Mr. Bill the present church edifice on High Street was erected, but not finished before 1880. (It has been much enlarged since then.) In 1881 Rev. C. E. Young, a young graduate of Colby
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College, became pastor and remained eleven years, un- til 1892. He married, not long after his coming, Miss Lucy Small, daughter of Cyrus Small, a teacher and devoted church worker who made him an admirable helpmeet in his work. During his pastorate the parson- age beside the church was built. In June, 1895, Rev. Daniel Jenks assumed the pastorate. At that time the church membership was given as 140.
The list of clergymen who came to the pulpit of this church, through the years since then, is too long to enumerate here. Suffice it to say that they were all fine men, devoted to their work, who brought a very large membership to his church.
METHODIST CHURCH
The Methodist Episcopal church began as a sepa- rate organization in 1883. Leaving the Union Church, the meetings were first held in the Grange Hall with the Rev. J. H. Irving as pastor. Mr. Irving remained three years and his successor was Rev. C. H. Lever- ton.
During the year of the latter's ministry, 1887, a church edifice on the south side of Sweden Street was built and dedicated. The next pastor was the Rev. M. W. Newbert and in his second year, 1888, the par- sonage, later the home of Cyrus F. Small, the lawyer, was built. Mr. Newbert remained three years, that be- ing as long as a Methodist minister was allowed to re- main in one place, at that time. The next pastor was Rev. C. H. McElhiny and during his stay the church membership increased in numbers greatly. (Later, as business buildings began to encroach upon the church buildings, the present lot and parsonage were bought
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in 1913 and the church of today was built across the street in the corner of Prospect and Sweden streets, where it has continued to prosper.)
FREE BAPTIST CHURCH
The Free Baptist Society was organized Sept. 24, 1887, beginning its existence with twenty-seven mem- bers. The first deacons appointed were John Lewis and Jesse Tooker. In March, 1888, Rev. L. E. Hall of New Hampshire was installed as pastor and remained with the church nearly two years. For about a year after Mr. Hall's resignation the Society was without a settled pastor but during that year a church edifice was erected and was dedicated October 29, 1890 free of debt. Its cost was about $1600. The next pastor was Rev. C. W. Foster who remained two and one half years during which time thirty-one persons were add- ed to the church membership. Rev. A. C. Thompson followed Mr. Foster and began his work in October, 1893. He remained several years and left the church in a flourishing condition.
(In 1919 the Free Baptist Society united with the Baptist Society selling their church edifice to the Episcopal Society which still worships there.)
St. Luke's Church
Rev. Hudson Sawyer, resident pastor of Fort Fairfield, was the first to hold Episcopalian services in Caribou, in 1880.
Work on the foundation and frame of St. Luke's Episcopal Church was begun September 4th, 1888, the land having been the gift of two parishioners, and af- ter many interruptions due to scanty means-small membership-service was first held Sunday afternoon
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September 14, 1890 with Bishop Neely present and conducting the service. The church had a seating ca- pacity for about two hundred and fifty people and the cost of the building was about $3000.
On Easter Monday, April 17th, 1922 old St. Luke's was de-consecrated, and the property sold to the Cary Hospital. On this day all movable pictures were trans- ferred to the new St. Lukes Church which had been purchased from the Free Christian Baptists. Here service was held April 23, 1922.
The building was new and commodious, and pos- sessed a Parish House. The edifice was consecrated by the Right Reverend Bishop Brewster, on July 2, 1922.
Regular services were held in St. Lukes until Novmber 9, 1930, when extensive repairs and improve- ments were undertaken. After being re-modeled, re- novated and re-decorated-with sanctuary and chancel added-the interior presents a very handsome and pleasing appearance. Services, which during the pro- gress of the work had been held in the Parish House, were resumed in the Church on February 8, 1931.
The Rev. Hazen Rigby has occupied the pulpit since 1924.
HOLY ROSARY CHURCH
During the early days the Catholic population of Caribou had to drive six miles to North Lyndon to worship. The first mass to be celebrated in Caribou village was at the home of Dr. LaFleche, May 26, 1884. In 1884 the Rev. Ferdinand Pineau, at that time pastor at North Lyndon was petitioned by the Catho- lics of Caribou for a chapel to be built in the village
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of Caribou. Throught the efforts of Father Pineau, land was purchased of Mr. Freeland Jones, son-in-law of Washington A. Vaughan, (the original owner of the land) and in 1885 a church was erected, known as the Holy Rosary Church. In 1886 Father Pineau was suc- ceeded in the pastorate of North Lyndon and Caribou by Rev. Charles A. Gingras. Father Gingras carried the work on the new church to completion and in De- cember 1886 mass was held in the new church for the first time. It is to Father Gingras' credit that the work on this church was completed and furnished with the various necessities that were needed. From 1886 until November, 1896 the Holy Rosary Church was a mission of the North Lyndon parish. In July, 1893 Father Gingras was replaced by Rev. C. G. Marsan. In 1894 Father Marsan built a school near the church, and for a time the school building was also used as a hall for parish meetings. The Caribou church was de- tached from the one in North Lyndon in November, 1896 and Father Eugene Gauthier of Bangor was named as first resident pastor of the Holy Rosary Church in Caribou. During his pastorate a parochial residence was provided, and furnished, and the origi- nal parish debt was nearly paid off. In 1902 Rev. Henry J. McGill replaced Father Gauthier and remain- ed until 1910. Rev. John F. Hogan of Millinocket came to the Caribou church in 1910 and remained for five years. In 1915 Rev. Alfred Pelletier, now deceased, re- placed Father Hogan, remaining for only one year. Rev. Dennis Martin then came to Caribou for the next two years. In 1918 Rev. John Chatagnon was appointed to replace Father Martin. In 1919 the next pastor, Lud-
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ger D. Ouillette was appointed. He began the present school building in July, 1920 but owing to hard years and poor potato crops among his parishioners, he was obliged to stop construction for two years. Several years later, after the building had been completed, the Caribou High School was destroyed by fire and the town officials secured permission from Father Oui- llette to use the newly completed building as a Town High School for four years.
(In the fall of 1928 the parochial school was open- ed under the direction of the Ursuline Sisters. The school and convent attached are today valued at ap- proximately $65,000.
In July, 1934 the Holy Rosary Church was de- stroyed by fire but it was soon replaced by a fine new building on a new location on Vaughan Street directly across from the Convent and Parochial School.)
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
The Universalist Church should be taken up again for a brief word concerning its progress since it was left in the earlier pages of this history. The church edifice has been enlarged and entirely remodeled since then so there is little trace of its old meeting-house days-modern, within and without-but it must not be forgotten that it was the first church built in the town.
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