USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 20
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The old Isaac Salley farm was sold when the once numerous family had all removed from Embden. The buildings were burned in 1923. In its day the house had been a welcome meeting place for many kindred. These were from several adjoining towns, some of them descendants of William Salley - brother of the pioneers Isaac and Daniel - who cleared a farm in Madison and had six children. One of these was Joseph Salley, father of Tilson D. Salley who was a much respected resident of that town. Joseph Salley married into the Aaron Thompson family of Anson, near the Embden line.
Eight of the 22 settler families of 1790 had thus departed for other fields when the first town assessment was made in 1805. Dr. Edward Savage, Abraham Row, Zacheus Huston, Benjamin
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and David Young. Francis Burns and John Wilson were substantially the accessions of new farm owners during that fifteen year period. Dr. Savage came from Wiscasset-Woolwich neighborhood as did the Youngs; Abraham Row from Barring- ton ; John Wilson from Townsend, Mass. Francis Burns was a son of James and Abigail (Spencer) Burns, who after years of residence at Vassalboro (Sidney), had a Kennebec frontage lot in Anson. In population the town was gaining, for there were a few settlers in 1805 not subject to assessment. Only intrepid men and women stood to the seige of the woodlands which, till toward the 1820's, were an unbroken crown between two long scars the axe-men had made up and down the two water boundaries.
Where the lines of classification belong as to Embden pioneers is a matter of opinion. The pioneer list should undoubtedly include the names on the Titcomb map and, perhaps, all the incorporating families. But those documents do not include all early settlers, nor a few families that meanwhile had been settlers in Anson and later came over to Embden. Previous chapters have dealt with nearly all the pioneers, mentioned on the first map and in the list of incorporators. That list written into the town record book by Town Clerk Benjamin Colby, Jr., was in the following language interesting not alone for the names but for the manner in which they are entered :
"1804 - June the 22.
"A memorandum of the No. of inhabitants within the outlines of the town of Embden are as follows :
"Widow Olive Hutchins
"Ashahel Hutchins and Polly his wife
"Olive Hutchins
"Asamuel Hutchins and Anna his wife and five children the oldest
"Simeon Cragin and Molley his wife
"Timothy Cleveland and Jean his wife
"James Hubard and Betsey his wife
"Jonathan Cleveland and Mary his wife
"Abel Cleveland and Rozannah his wife
"Francis Burns and Sally his wife
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UP AND AWAY IN THE DAWN
"Edward Savage and Sally his wife
"Widow Sarah Williams & Widow Isabellah Pain
"James Pain, Benjamin Gould and Olive his wife and children
"Benjamin Colby and Betsy his wife
"John Gray, Jr., and Catherine his wife
"Joshua Gray and Hannah his wife
"John Gray Seignior and Betsey his wife
"Thomas McFaden and Hannah his wife
"Abram Rowe and Kitty his wife
"Moses Thompson and Polly his wife
"Jonathan Stevens and Sarah his wife
"Caleb Williams and Betsey his wife
"Jacob Williams and Joanna his wife
"Benjamin Colby, Jr., and Rebekkah his wife
"Luther Cleveland and Abihail his wife
"John Wilson and Catherine his wife
"Jedediah Thompson and Thankful his wife and some children
"Benjamin Thompson and Lydia his wife
"Zacheus Huston and Etenah his wife
"Benja. Anise and Molly his wife and children
"Thomas Whaling and Polly that lived with him
"Widow Dorcas Whaling Since moved to Penobscot
"James McFaden and Betsy his wife
"Isaiah Foss and his wife
"Ichabod Foss and Sarah his wife
"Isaac Rowe Abigail his wife
"Jonathan Fowler and Sally his wife
"Elphtet Robins and Eliza his wife
"James Rowe and Betsey his wife
"John Rowe. John Kealiher and Deborah his wife
"August 27 - 1805 - Benja. Colby, Jr., Town Clerk
"Benja. Young and Lucy his wife
"1812 Some time in the month of December Archa Dunlap Moved into Embden with his family."
There were no further entries after Archa Dunlap, who settled in middle Embden on Lot 59 but about the date of Archa's
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
coming there was a considerable accession of new families. These and other settlers belong to a little later period. They made up for the losses in the scanty population, caused by the departure of households above described, and were in sufficient numbers to give the town organization a new impetus.
CHAPTER XVI
NAILED THEM ON THREE DOORS
Things went by threes in Embden town of yore. This held much as to civic procedure in the young community of the early 1800's and not a little in matters of local topography. From Titcomb or Greenfield (North Anson) through Township No. 1 (Embden) two paths northward and one rather westward penetrated the woods and gradually were made into roads. Over these ways into Embden there had been increasing travel as the new country became dotted with settlers' cabins. While the Rhode Island proprietors worked in desultory fashion to market their holdings contiguous to the Kennebec, the Canada Trail and to Seven Mile Brook the settlements on each rude thoroughfare grew into a municipal entity. There was a good measure of loyalty among the settlers for their respective localities.
This was recognized quickly in the determination of town business. The pie was cut into three pieces at first in the election of town officers. Notices of town meetings soon were posted in three places and this practice was long observed, even into days when there were three post-offices - one on the Kennebec, one at Embden Center and another on Seven Mile Brook. But it was not long before contention arose over the distribution of town authority. This led to a spirited struggle. Settlers along the Kennebec were stronger than those on the west side. The latter were in closer contact with New Portland and particularly with Anson. The outcome was a determined effort in 1818 to divide the town. New comers in middle Emb- den soon thwarted that.
After the act of incorporation was passed by the General Court at Boston town business was taken promptly in hand. The first town meeting assembled on Thursday, August 16, 1804 having been certified by William Jones, justice of the peace. The record does not state where this meeting was held and gives only the names of town officials then chosen. These were headed by Thomas McFadden, as town clerk and first selectman, with
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
Samuel Umphrey bringing up the rear as deer-keeper. Some towns then had such an officer, a sort of deer warden. The second meeting convened Sept. 6, 1804, at the house of Benjamin Colby - probably on his big island in the Kennebec. The single sheet of paper on which Town Clerk McFadden wrote the minutes of that meeting has been preserved. Most of it was copied into the little town book. The minutes read :
"At a meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Embden Leguly wanned and hild at the House of Benjamin Colby in said Town on this Day September 6th 1804 first voted Benjamin Colby moderator
"Secondly voted to Choose a Comity
Jacob Williams
Jonathan Clevelan
Benjamin Thompson
John Gray Moses Thompson
"3 voted not to Clear the Rods By Rate
"4 & 5 artical omited
"6 voted to omit taxing wild Lands
"7 voted to peticion the Cort to Let us work our Taxes on the Roads.
"8 voted to Raise fifty Dollars"
The minutes say nothing about the purpose for which the "Comity" was chosen but it was plainly the one to lay out "the Road in the Eastern ward from Anson Road to the Million-Acre Line." This is the present Embden highway that runs near the Kennebec River. Jonathan Cleveland was the only member of the Committee from West Embden. The assessment list with the amount opposite each is as follows :
*Simeon Cragin $1.50
Thos. McFaden 5.00
Moses Thompson 5.00
Jacob Williams 5.00
Benja. Colby 2.50
Benjamin Thompson, jun. 2.
*Edward Savage 1.25
*Jonathan Cleavland 1.55
* Asahel Hutchins 2.
E
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NAILED THEM ON THREE DOORS
Jonathan Stephens 2.50
John Gray 3.00
Joshua Gray 2.00
Abraham Row
1.00
John McFaden
1.00
Benjamin Colby, jun.
2.00
Zachies Huston 1.00
*Ebel Cleevland 1.00
John Gray, junior 1.00
Benjamin Young
1.00
John Willson 1.00
Caleb Williams
1.00
James McFaden
1.00
David Young
1.50
*Francis Burns
.75
*Timothy Cleevland .50
*Wido olive Hutchins 1.00
The total of this first assessment was $48.05 - probably $48 if an error in a figure of Jonathan Cleveland's assessment had been corrected. Assessable property at that time was much in the eastern part of the town abutting the Kennebec. The West Embden taxpayers on the list are marked with an asterisk. There were but eight of them, including the three brothers, Jonathan, Abel and Timothy Cleveland, and Mrs. Olive Hutchins and her son, Asahel.
There was soon a third town meeting to dispose of pressing business. One item was to raise more money as the first as- sessment did not suffice. Another was to make a beginning at building roads. The meeting was called for Monday Nov. 5, 1804, because that was the date for voting for 19 presidential electors. As it is recorded that: "the following Gentlemen were Chosen Hon. James Sullivan Elbridge Garry and others Received twenty-five vots each" the presumption follows that there were 25 farmers at this third town meeting. The story of the meeting is quaintly and succinctly told in the following copy of the warrant and of the minutes :
"Kennebec, SS, To John Willson Constable of the town of Embden in the County aforesaid, Greeting :
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
"Your are here By Required in the name of the Common- wealth of the Massachusetts forthwith to Warn all the inhab- itants of the town of Embden Qualified By Law to vote For Representative to meet at the house of Joshua Gray in the sd Town on Monday the fifth of November next at ten of the clock in the fore noon to act on the following articles :
"To give in their votes for nineteen Electors of President and Vice President of the United States.
"2ly to vote for a Representative to Congress.
"And allso to act on the following articles :
"lly to Choose a Moderator.
"2ly to See if the town will accept the Road in the Eastern ward from Anson Road to the Million Acre Line as laid out by Jacob Williams, Jonathan Cleveland, Benjamin Thompson, John Gray and Moses thompson, committee.
"3ly to See if the town will accept the road Laid out in the Western ward from Anson line to Portland line.
"4ly. to See if the town will Accept the Road in the Middle Ward.
"5ly. to See if the town Will Vote to raise one hundred and twenty-nine Dollars to pay Thomas McFaden Benjamin Thomp- son And John Gray for Discharging four Executions against sd town.
"6ly. to See if the town will agree to appoint A place or plaises to set up town warrants for the Futer.
"7ly. To see if the town will Choose Another Collector and discharge the one that now Serves."
The record of this town meeting, indicates that only a part of the business was acted upon. Benjamin Colby was chosen Moderator and the next four articles were disposed of as fol- lows :
"2 Secondly voted to Except the Road from anson Road to the Million acres in the Estren Ward of said Town.
"3 Thirdly voted to Except the road in the westrely Destrick from anson Line to Portland Town line.
"4 voted to Except the Road in the midel Destrict from Isaac Rows to anson Line, Running a south Course or thereabouts.
"5 fifthly voted to Rais one hundred and Twenty-Nine Dol-
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NAILED THEM ON THREE DOORS
lars to pay Thomas McFadden, Benjamin Thompson and John Gray for discharging four executions against said Town."
The "sixly" and last item of the warrant was disposed of by a vote that "Moses Thompson, John Willson and Simeon Grogins be places to sit up Town Warrants for the future." This was quite as good a provision for publicity as the Embden farmers could make. Moses Thompson had the tavern by the Ferry, where all travellers up and down the river road were wont to pause for gossip and refreshment. John Willson's house was close to the Trail, where a procession of townsmen must pass and repass, while Simeon Cragin's house on Seven Mile Brook road stood at a central point for that part of Embden.
Authorization of three high roads through the town was an important step. If there was any opposition, no evidence of it remains. In later years when it came to the sterner business of providing funds - which under the early system was largely a matter of supplying labor - the process of construction was very slow. These two north and south ways and the westward one along Seven Mile Brook were very soon inadequate. It was half a century before intersecting east and west roads were established. The lack of such intersecting roads handicapped the development of a town spirit and provoked discord.
It was something of a journey 120 years ago from Embden on Seven Mile Brook, where Rev. Edward Savage the second selectman lived, to Embden, on the Kennebec, where Town Clerk Thomas McFadden had his homestead. That may explain why the warrant for the Nov. 5 town meeting was signed only by Thomas McFadden and son-in-law, Benjamin Thompson. But during the early years the seat of town authority was firmly established by the Kennebec. In 1805 a new board of selectmen was elected, all from the eastern section of the town. They were Benjamin Colby, town clerk and first selectman, Jacob Williams, 2nd, and Moses Thompson, 3rd. All these farmers were big men in their neighborhoods. Colby at the extreme southeast of Embden; Williams at the extreme northeast; and Thompson at the half-way point. This trio held office several years during the period when, unless one was willing to travel
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
by paths or tote roads, the route from one part of the town to the other was via North Anson village.
The isolation of the Seven Mile Brook and of the Kennebec River settlements and the difficulty of communication between them augmented the dissatisfaction that had prevailed for a decade. It finally developed into a petition to the General Court at Boston to create a town of East Brookfield and thus confine the farmers by the Kennebec to a government of their own property.
Benjamin Pierce who was a son-in-law of Simeon Cragin and had established himself on Gordon hill near the Cragin neighborhood stood forth as the leader of this movement and on May 19, 1818, had mustered the support of 50 farmers. Their petition "to the Hon. Senate and house of Representatives for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts humbly Represented" as follows :
"The undersigned Inhabitance of the Town of Embden in the County of Somersett (state) that there is a large Pond in Sd Town which with a stream insuring therefrom divides sd Town nearly in the senter from North to South, that there is no Road nor can be any which will convenently communicate between the Easterly & Westerly sextions that in traviling from one sexion to the other they are obliged to pass through the town of Anson, and that the number of Inhabitance on each side of sd Pond are nearly equal.
"Therefore your Petitioners pray that sd Town may be divided and that the sextion situated westerly of sd pond and stream may be incorporated in to a town by the name of East Brook- field. ''
The list of signers shows the names of a good part of the ' population. Those marked with an asterisk were residents of West Embden and in the vicinity of the Pierce-Cragin neighbor- hood. They would have comprised most of the people in East Brookfield, had the General Court granted their request. Embden by the Kennebec seems also to have acquiesced quite generally in the idea of division. The number of signers from that section is significant. Those who dwelt in the north section of the town - many of them colonists from New Hampshire -
.
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NAILED THEM ON THREE DOORS
either held aloof or were not consulted, although they made themselves heard effectively later. Benjamin Pierce, who headed the petition, obtained the following subscribers.
*Daniel Nalor, *Timothy Cleveland, *Thomas Cleveland, *Nathaniel Getchell, *Josiah Moor, Jr. (from a family across the Brook in what later became Anson) *Jeremiah Thompson, *Nahum Quint, *William Quint, *James Paine, *Moses Wil- liams, *Asahel Hutchins, *Edward Savage, *William Savage, Caleb Williams, Jonathan Fowler, Moses Thompson, Foster S. Palmer, Benjamin C. Atwood, Cyrus Boothby, John Williams, Daniel Savage, Ralph Wells, Christopher Thompson, Samuel Stackpole, Jr., Daniel Williams, Ebenezer Williams, Benjamin Witham, Nathan Thompson, Cyrus Williams, Reuben Savage, *Simeon Cragin, *Ephraim Savage, *Benjamin Cleveland, *Simeon Cragin, Jr., * Abel Cleveland, *Francis Burns, * Andrew Wentworth, *James Wentworth, *John Pierce, *Henry Daggett, *Nathan Daggett, *Benjamin Gould, *Joseph Walker, Asa With- am, Nathaniel Walker, David Felker, Jonathan Stevens, Reuben Thompson, Benjamin Young, and Joseph Young.
This petition went on its routine way before the General Court. It must have been speeded to Boston, as it was in the House of Representatives there June 2, 1818, when it was "committed to the committee on the incorporation of towns" by Speaker Timothy Bigelow. No action was taken in the Senate till January 30, 1819, when the petition was referred then to a committee on the incorporation of towns.
Back in rural Embden, however, the agitation for East Brookfield under the leadership of Benjamin Pierce and Simeon Cragin proceeded with arguments pro and con. A town meeting was called November 2, 1818, at the house of Joseph Young over in northeast Embden and 45 of the taxpayers assembled for a referendum. The result was favorable to division -32 to 11. The names of those voting have not been preserved. But this meeting and its decision did not quiet the controversy. Farmers in North Embden and along the Canada Trail must have aroused themselves as the General Court continued to delay and on Sept. 13, 1820, nearly two years after the first town meeting referendum another town meeting was
1
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
called to consider the question. The vote then stood - 13 for dividing the town and 20 against dividing it. This town meeting had been preceded by a counter-petition, dated Jan. 23, 1819. It was sent to the General Court with 28 signers. These were headed by Robert Wells, whose kinsman, Ralph Wells, had supported the first petition but now joined with the dissenters. Besides the two Wells men, the signers were:
Samuel Clark, Benjamin Berry, Benjamin F. Berry, Levi Berry, Archa Dunlap, Ebenezer G. Clark, Eli Clark, Reuben Savage, John Rowe, Jonathan Stevens, John Hunnewell, John Wilson, Reuben Wilson, Ichabod Foss, Lemuel Witham, John Mullin, David Felker, John Libbey, Joseph Felker, Stephen Ayer, Asa Witham, Mike Felker, Luther Cleveland, Abel Cleve- land, Elisha Young and Luther Cleveland, Jr. It may be noted that Abel Cleveland, Reuben Savage, Jonathan Stevens, Asa Witham and David Felker, like Ralph Wells, were signers on both petitions. The text of the dissenting petition from North Embden reads :
"To the Hon. Senate and house of Representatives in General Court Assembled Humbly shews the Subscribers Inhabitants of the town of Embden; that Whereas a number of the In- habitants of the said town Petitioned the Legislature for a Separation of said Town; and Represented Many incon- veniences ; and among others; a large Pond which renders it imposable for a Road to Communicate from the East to the West Sections of Said town. That there is a Pond in said town which Renders it Some Inconvenient for Roads ; your Petitioners will not deny, but there is a good Chance for a Road at Each End of said Pond, and one laid out and excepted; and the Bridges mostly Built; at the Lower End of said Pond, and a good Chance for one at the upper End of said Pond; if ever there should be settlers enough to need one.
"And your Petitioners further Represent that there is not more than seventy five or Eighty Families; now in said Town and not more than one half of them own there Land being so poor and the unsettled land so poor that we never can Expect many more; that now we are not allowed a Representative by the Constitution and should we be separated it is not probably
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NAILED THEM ON THREE DOORS
We ever should be able to send one, which is a Privilege your Petitioners Should think hard to be denied of.
"And your Petitioners further state : that it is not more than two or three times in a year; that the Whole Town is Called together; Except for Trainings, which might be remedied by a division of the Company, without a division of the Town, that Several of those who signed the First Petition have owned that they were Misled by Influential men and have signed this. that the Expense of maintaining two Governments over so few Inhabitants is much for so Trifling an Excuse. Therefore your Petitioners Pray that said Town be not divided and as in duty bound will ever pray."
Naturally Benjamin Pierce's division project fell through before this argument and its weight of signatures. The matter seemed for a time to have been forgotten. The two cross town roads were both built in due season and the Embden militia was divided into two companies. This multiplied by two the number of militia officers. Although local history is silent, the division probably stimulated the perspiring valor of the country lads at trainings. One can understand how the West Embden company vied zealously to outdo the Company from the Kennebec and vice versa, each stepping to stentorious orders on muster fields till the militia days were no more.
What may have happened in the interim of nearly twenty years must forever remain conjecture, but for some reason the question of dividing the town was again revived in 1839. Joshua Gray, then constable, posted a warrant for a special town meeting on Dec. 12 at 1 p. m. at the dwelling of Benjamin Colby, Jr. It was to consider solely an article regarding the livision of the town. James Y. Cleveland and Col. Lemuel Witham signed the warrant as selectmen.
The meeting assembled and Jonathan Stevens was elected noderator. Benjamin Colby, Jr., long a leader in affairs, ppears to have had no active part. It was only a year before is death. Capt. Joseph Knowlton, Fletcher Thompson, J. Y. Cleveland, Benjamin Gould, Jr., Elias Salley, Christopher Thompson and Otis Strickland were selected as a committee of even to agree upon division lines and report forthwith. The
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programme had evidently been pre-arranged. Chairman Knowlton, who resided on Seven Mile Brook with his land touching that of Benjamin Pierce on Gordon hill, presented a report immediately.
The committee recommended a separation of Embden into three parts. About 100 farms in the south third of the town would have been set off by an east and west line, beginning about a mile north of Capt. Knowlton's place, running south of Black Hill Pond, cutting off the lower end of Embden Pond, with the saw mill privilege, thence north of the present town house, to the old George W. Copp place, north of Sand Pond, north of Little Fahi and along the north line of the Jeremiah Chamber- lain farm to the Kennebec River. The latter part of the line would have been very nearly on the present Solon cross road. Presumably this lower section of Embden was thus designed to become a part of Anson. Another line, north and south, began on the sixth range line, not far from the Embden Pond mill sito and bisected that sheet of water into approximately equal parts, the division running through to the Concord boundary. Probably the eastern half was thought of for annexation to Solon and the western part to New Portland.
Details of the discussion are, of course, lost. It is uncertain from the text of the Embden records how far the Joseph Knowlton committee favored division. Possibly the "division lines" were reported to provide a concrete proposition on which a vote could be had. It may be the division had been agitated by a group of townsmen, who, groaning under their tax burdens, believed they could have an equally good government and perhaps, better roads and schools at less expense in co-operation with adjoining towns.
Be all that as it may Town Clerk James Young Cleveland, after entering the text of the committee report in the leather bound town book, added simply : "whereupon the inhabitants aforesaid voted to pass by the second article (which was "to see if the town vote to divide said town of Embden and annex it to other towns") in said warrant - adjourned sine die."
This apparently was the end of the matter. The next annual town meeting "at the dwelling house of Benjamin Colby, Jr."
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on Monday. March 2, 1840 at nine o'clock in the forenoon, assembled on a warrant of twenty-two articles, all of which, except the three for the choice of moderator, town clerk and "a board of town officers" had to do with relatively routine matters. The "inhabitants" voted $1,500 for repairs of high- ways - oxen to be paid for at 12 1-2 cents the hour - to "raise what the law requires for schools," directed the constable to post town meeting warrants at the postoffices, and that Samuel Walker be permitted to erect a gate across the highway between N. W. Gould's corner and Levi Barron's south line. There were four items of business about school government, covering the choice of agents and annexations to school districts, but not a word further about dividing the town.
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