USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 47
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March 4, 1889-Voted to raise $10,000 to pay on the railroad debt.
March 11, 1890-Voted $2,500 for the same purpose and on March 2, 1891 raised $2,000 to pay interest on the indebtedness, but on March 7, 1892, the appropriation was $3,000 to meet in- terest on indebtedness and to pay town charges. There was an annual appropriation of a similar amount and for like purpose several years thereafter well through the 1890's. Embden had finally met her obligations growing out of the pledge to the Somerset Railroad in 1868. No other transaction ever before had so strained and distressed her people. Now the town was again out upon the highroad to better times.
The two law suits, mentioned above, had been fought ten- aciously for seven years but Embden was defeated on every point. The treasurer drew an order March 1, 1889, for $659 in favor of George L. Eames and about the same date an order for $125 to D. D. Stewart of St. Albans. The town had resisted
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payment because the railroad had not been built as far as Emb- den and the spirit of the contract had not been compiled with. The courts nevertheless decided the bonds were a legal obligation. The suit of Savage was originally against inhabitants of the town and writ to recover on certain coupons was dated July 12, 1882. A judgment was rendered on default the third Tuesday of the following December. Deputy Sheriff N. F. Clapp on Aug. 6, 1883, attached the property of George L. Eames to cover damages of $324.33 and costs of $12.75. The Bickford suit was of similar character. A. H. Ware and D. D. Stewart were at- torneys for Embden; J. J. Parlin and George Freeland Holmes for the bondholders. It was contended that Chapter 84, section 30 of the Maine Revised Statutes authorizing execution against towns to issue against and be levied upon goods and chattels of inhabitants was unconstitutional.
On that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in an opinion by Justice Emery, March 20, 1885, held for the bondholders with Chief Justice Peters and Justices Walton, Danforth, Libbey and Foster concurring. Appeals to the United States Supreme Court at Washington in both cases were soon docketed there. Three years elapsed while these cases were awaiting argument. Mean- while progress had been made, as already seen, toward settle- ment with the bondholders and Oct. 15, 1888, by authorization of the town's counsel, both appeals were dismissed with costs.
In less important issues the town had reverses when resort- ing to the law. Its first suit, authorized on Sept. 4, 1813, was an example. The selectmen were then directed "to commence an action against the town of Augusta or any other town as they may see fit," for support of a certain pauper family. Whether Embden ever won a decision is not clear, but many payments to lawyers and townsmen for services were recorded in the next four years. Levi H. Perkins got $6.33 in 1816 and Joshua Gray $14. Benjamin Colby, Jr., was paid $33.96 on account of this law case as late as 1816 and Dr. Bezar Bryant $5.25 on Feb. 19, 1817. This experience probably taught a lesson and in 1822 when there was trouble with the town of Hampden over the support of an- other impoverished family it was voted to leave the bringing
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of an action to the town agent's discretion. However Embden from time to time helped lawyers at North Anson to make a living. Paulinus M. Foster was paid a fee of $25.43 and another fee of $32.20 in 1838 - possibly in the suit against John Mc- Fadden and his brother-in-law over a transaction in ministerial lands. David Bronson in 1842, while a Representative in Con- gress, was paid a fee of $15 and then $100 more in some action that Fletcher Thompson, then town agent, had in charge.
The western part of Embden had gates and bars athwart its roads long after the pioneers moved in. Perhaps there were like inclosures on the Kennebec side but town meetings were silent about them. Those were days when annual decision as to whether hogs should be or should not be permitted at large "'yoked and rung" was an important item of public business. As late as 1837 there was an article in the warrant "to see if the town will agree what neat cattle shall run at large upon the highways and commons the present year" and the vote favored that privilege only for cows.
Among items of town business on April 4, 1808, was authority to Jonathan Cleveland to hang a gate on the bridle path over the wading place. He and Simeon Cragin had surveyed that road which accommodated considerable traffic for a time. Anyone curious to trace that old lane across the intervale should note the surveyors' description as follows :
"Beginning at Asahel Hutchins gate (probably just south of the brick house as shown on page 37) thence south, 71 degrees west, 40 rods; thence south, 47 degrees west across Seven Mile Brook; thence south, 75 degrees west, 10 rods; thence north, 70 degrees west, 16 rods; thence west 60 rods with the road on the northerly side of the line."
This bridle path and wading place - discontinued in 1820 - were distinct from the old road to the island farther northwest.
A decade later in the same neighborhood Benjamin Cleveland was permitted "to hang a gate on the east side of his field." Long afterward Joseph Barron was authorized "to erect and keep a gate across the town road near his road," apparently at the present Barron corner but about the same time an article in
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the warrant to allow "the road from Cleveland's mill to the main road to be bridled with a gate" was ignored. The Cleve- land saw mill (Lot No. 103) on the stream out of Embden Pond was then doing considerable business. As late as 1888 the town in refusing to discontinue the road from Gordon corner, so- called. northerly to the south line in Lot No. 163 - the Black hill region - also refused "to make said road a bridle road subject to gates and bars." This ancient thoroughfare, north- ward for two miles from the Solon-New Portland cross road, is now swallowed up by the forest. It passed Black Hill Pond and penetrated up the side of the hill. On either hand were farms occupied by well-to-do owners - Clevelands, Pierces, Hinkleys, Jacksons and Nortons. Benjamin Pierce and Ben- jamin Cleveland had a road to their own doorways much before but in 1831 and 1832 it was extended up to Black Hill, having been examined and "layed out" by Joseph Knowlton, Benjamin Colby. Jr., and Christopher Thompson as a committee and ap- proved in "open town meeting."
With all its ponds and outlet streams there are no large water- ways in Embden to be spanned. The building of bridges was a minor incident of road making. While the rates of pay per hour for men. oxen, carts and plows were carefully specified from year to year long in advance of the purchase of a road machine, nothing was said about bridges till Sept. 9, 1850, when an article "to contract with some one to build a bridge across the stream near David Stevens" was "passed by." Tobias Churchill (1807- 1891). the North Anson wool dealer who went west in 1865. had a claim before the town meeting of April 10, 1828, for dam- age "in consequence of his horse falling threw a bridge near Quint's mill" but the town was not disposed to find a method of settling with him and ignored the article in the town warrant. That horse fall was before the southwest triangle was trans- ferred to Anson and probably Quint's mill was on Seven Mile Brook in that neighborhood.
Much more prevalent were claims for damages to oxen. but the town appears to have been hard in such cases. Erastus Walker asked pay in 1852 for damage to an ox while "breaking
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snow" during the winter but was refused although at the same meeting the town agent was instructed to settle with Franklin Collins for injuries to his horse and on March 5, 1855, Embden voted $10 to William Barron for damage done an ox, presum- ably somewhere on the highroad. Dr. Stevens was paid $8.00 May 9, 1853, for damage to his gig.
Guide posts, then called guide boards, were an innovation. If official mention be conclusive, the first Embden one was author- ized March 1, 1852, when the town directed that it be raised "at the forks of the roads (to New Portland) near Moses Williams." Calvin F. Getchell was paid $5 Dec. 11, 1855, "for a guide board."
The marking of adjacent town boundaries, however, had early attention. Benjamin Colby, Jr., and John Wilson, as selectmen, and John Moor and John Hilton, Oct. 20, 1810, "by virtue of a law of the Commonwealth in such cases made and provided," certified that they had "perambulated run and remarked the dividing line between the town of Anson and the town of Emb- den." Benjamin Colby, Jr., Edward Savage and Moses Thomp- son selectmen, with Henry Norton and Samuel Gould for New Portland certified Nov. 4, 1815, performance of a like duty on the west, but it was 1839 when Asa Merrill of New Portland and Jesse Fletcher of Embden again perambulated that west bound- ary and reported that they had erected three stone monuments;" (1) on north bank of Seven Mile Brook where road crosses town line, (2) at road near Henry Goodrich's and (3) at northwest corner of Embden." Monuments between Anson and Embden were erected earlier for a town order of $.50 was issued Oct. 27, 1821, to Joseph Walker for putting up one monument on that boundary. Isaac Burns on Jan. 25, 1839, was paid $1.50 for a boundary monument, probably the one near Henry Goodrich's.
It was many years, however, before this work of marking boundaries was satisfactorily done, or that the necessity of per- ambulating ceased. Every decade or so there was notice about a selectman or two having been out on the town line. Col. Chris- copher Thompson had an unusual week beginning Nov. 10, 1834. On that day he and James Mantor walked the line between Emb-
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den and Anson. The next day Col. Christopher walked the line on the New Portland side with Reuben J. Hill. On the two suc- ceeding days he was out, first, with Mr. Pease tramping along the Lexington-Embden boundary and then with David Felker and Sheridan Felker perambulating between Concord and Emb- den. At the end of this walk Col. Christopher was on the bank of the Kennebec, near his own homestead.
Details of these procedures and the purposes served must be left somewhat to conjecture. Here and there may have been questions of jurisdiction and of fences and taxes and the exact point to which roads should be maintained. Settlers had con- tinuous wrangles over fencing their farms. Where disputes arose between men on either side of town boundaries there was probably call for joint authority.
Down the lane of years are entries that attest the fence view- er's activities. Again and again the viewers, elected at annual town meetings, stepped in between farmer and farmer. They walked the lines between farms, when there had been formal complaint, said which portion should be fenced by one and the other farmer and the town clerk wrote the decision into his leather bound book. Not infrequently North Anson traders, who bought Embden land for one reason or another, figured in these controversies. When acres changed from tillage to pas- tureage and on to the point of abandonment fencing questions became vexatious.
But these differences were much between more or less pros- perous neighbors and occasionally between kith and kin. To the viewers, who constituted a petty local court, the farmers hastened when unable to agree. Such actions were more nu- merous along from 1840 to 1860. Amos and Asahel Hutchins in 1846 had a fence dispute with neighbor Moses Williams which James McKenney and Humphrey Purington adjudicated. Over in the southeast quarter in 1852 Rev. Jesse Lee Wilson and Mason S. Colby differed about fences near the Anson line. Law- rence E. Williams and Nathaniel W. Gould dealt out even hand- ed justice to them. On the docket of fence contentions in 1862 over by the Kennebec was a case between Joshua Gray and Rev.
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Samuel Savage. A few years before that the same Joshua Gray and Thaddeus F. Boothby were the viewers who straightened out a fence dispute between Erastus Walker and his sister-in-law, Emeline Walker, in northeast Embden and in 1856 Joshua Gray and Elisha Purington officiated between Charles Crymble and Joseph Atkinson. In 1860 Joseph Atkinson and William Barron as viewers intervened to settle a contention between Joseph Boy- ington and Stillman H. Atwood.
Joel Gray of Boston as owner of Embden land, and his uncle, Joshua Gray, fell out in 1862 regarding their fences. Ephraim Dunlap and Ebenezer G. Clark the same year could not agree about the line fence between Lots 85 and 86 and the town au- thorities had to say which part each should maintain. Solomon Walker and John Williamson (Wimp) Moulton in 1858 got mad ·about a line fence near the balm in gilead tree, whose aged trunk and branches could be seen up to a few years ago from the road to Lake Embden. Luke Hilton and John Hunnewell, Jr., were before the viewers in 1854, as were Calvin Williams of Concord and Abel W. Spaulding. And thus the record runs to numerous townsmen.
The town clerk's book, along with accounts of annual meetings and marriage licenses strung helter skelter from page to page (in most other towns, also, as well as in Embden), kept a record of marks and brands for the farmers' sheep, a practice continued into modern days. Benjamin Colby, Jr., recorded the first mark Aug. 27, 1805 - "a peace cut off the right ear and a slit in the left ear." John Gray, Jr., followed him Aug. 27, 1806, by reg- istering his mark as: "A peace cut off the left ear at the tip," and Zacheus Huston May 24, 1808, recorded his mark as "a slit at the top of the right ear."
Benjamin Thompson's sheep had "a notch in the back side of the right ear," while Dr. Edward Savage's sheep had "a hole through each ear." Joseph Hilton in 1811 had a mark for both his "cattle and sheep" - a notch in the back side of the left ear and the top of the right ear cut off. Other settlers used a mark for their cattle. Elisha Walker's mark was a slit in the end of the right ear and a swallow's tail in the end of the right
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ear." Elisha Young had one mark for his sheep and another for his cattle. Archa Dunlap's sheep were known by "a piece cut off of the tip of the right ear and a hole through the same and a half penny in the right ear under part." All these and others were written into the clerk's book by 1816.
Politics gripped the interest of Embdenites from the days of Federalists to Whigs and Democrats and into modern days. Till 1820 they voted for Massachusetts state officials and for Presi- dent, Vice President and Representatives in Congress on the Bay State ticket. A town warrant by Constable John McFad- den, calling a meeting for Tuesday Nov. 12, 1812, shows that voters included "those having a freehold estate within said town of the annual income of three pounds or any estate to the value of sixty pounds."
Under the plurality system two or more elections were some- times necessary for a decision. Town meetings to this end were frequent. Embden cast 18 votes on March 31, 1806, for county register - 15 for Henry Sewell and three for Isaac Carter. The same day votes were also cast for county treasurer - 14 for Samuel Howard and four for Samuel Titcomb. Then on "Mon- day, Apr. ye seventh" there was another town meeting to vote for Governor and Lieutenant Governor and 39 voters came. James Sullivan (1744-1808) of Berwick and Biddeford was can- didate for Governor of Massachusetts that year and Caleb Strong (1745-1819) of Northampton, who was rounding out his seventh year as Governor, was the other candidate. Embden gave Sulli- van 30 votes to nine for Strong.
Prominent men of the Revolutionary period vied for office during ensuing years. Embden on Aug. 3, 1809, gave Levi Lincoln (1782-1868) of Worcester 28 votes for Governor to 13 for Christopher Gore (1758-1827) of Boston. Gore, a Federal- ist, won. Both eventually were in Congress and made distin- guished records. The ballot for Lieutenant Governor at that meeting resulted. Joseph B. Varnum (1750-1821) of Dracut, Mass., then serving as Speaker of the National House at Wash- ington, 32 votes as against 12 for David Cobb (1748-1830) a Federalist ex-member of Congress from Attleboro. For State
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Senator at that election Joshua Cushman got 32 votes, Thomas Rice (1768-1854) of Wiscasset eight votes and Nathaniel Dum- mer five votes. Many Embden settlers personally knew Thomas Rice whose house is still pointed out near the corner where the road eastward from Montsweag stream turns into Wiscasset. He went to Congress later, serving his second term with Joshua Gage (1763-1831), of Augusta, who had 32 votes for Kennebec county treasurer in 1809 against 13 votes for Samuel Howard. Gage served 21 years as county treasurer. He bought Lot 68 in Embden, west of Fahi Pond in 1825 and his widow, Abigail, sold it the year after his death.
There were new candidates for office before the Embden free- holders when they met at town meeting April 2, 1810. They gave Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) of Marblehead, a Federalist who had then turned Democrat, 43 votes for Governor and 15 votes to Christopher Gore. Gerry, who two years later became Vice-President, was elected. The candidates for county treasurer were William Kendall and Daniel Steward of North Anson. The Embden result stood : 41 for Kendall and 16 for Steward. The following November 2 there was a town meeting to vote for Representative in Congress, when Embden gave Barzilla Gan- nett, of Bridgewater, Mass., 25 votes to four for Thomas Rice. Gannett was elected.
For election purposes the town meeting of April 1, 1811, "ad- journed fifteen minutes on the warrant" and recorded the pref- erences of the 38 voters present as to county treasurer, register of deeds, Governor, Lieutenant Governor and State Senator. Gerry, the Democrat, had 31 votes for Governor and Gore, six. The result for Senator was recorded as: "James Porter, 30; Peter Grant, six; Moses Thompson (of Embden) 1 scatering."
Coming down into the 1830's there were vigorous contests over the election of an Embden representative in the State Leg- islature. The town cast 85 votes on Oct. 18, 1830, of which Joseph Durrell had 46, Jonathan Stevens, Jr., 27 and 12 scatter- ing. New Portland and Concord were in the legislative class with Embden. Neither of these candidates, who were Embden neighbors on the Kennebec, had a clear majority and another
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election was called for December 3, when Durrell, who was then elected, had 47, Stevens 24 and scattering, six. This town meet- ing was protested, with no success, by John McFadden, David Stevens, John Gray, Jr., and Joseph Boyington. They attacked the validity of the voting "holding the warrant was not posted seven days and 2nd. because Elijah Wilson of Anson voted in the Embden election."
Durrell and Stevens had a further contest on Oct. 1, 1832, when the vote stood - Durrell, 74; Stevens, 34; Cyrus Boothby, John McFadden and Daniel Mullen, one vote each. Durrell was elected again that year.
Edward Kent of Bangor, Governor of Maine in 1838 and in 1841, and John Fairfield (1797-1847) of Saco, Democrat, Gov- ernor in 1839, 1842 and 1843 when he went to the United States Senate, had hard fought contests in which the Embden voters shared. Although the town was quite consistently Democratic just as it has been in modern days, Kent, a Whig, carried it sev- eral times. The swing of the Embden vote to him is indicated by these totals :
1836- Kent, 64; Robert P. Dunlap (1794-1859), 77.
1837 - Kent, 64; Gorham Parks, 57.
1838- Kent, 106; Fairfield, 84.
1839 - Kent, 76; Fairfield, 71.
1840 - Kent, 95; Fairfield, 82.
1841 - Kent, 87; Fairfield, 85.
Eben F. Pillsbury, the town's son-in-law through his marriage with Eleanor H. Cragin daughter of Simeon, was the candidate for Governor in 1866, '67 and '68 - hard years for Democracy. He ran each time against Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain (1828- 1914) one of the State's great soldiers and educators. The town's vote in '66 stood Pillsbury, 103, Chamberlain, 75; in '67 it was Pillsbury, 113, Chamberlain, 70; in '68, Pillsbury, 114, Cham- berlain, 82.
Eben F. Pillsbury (1825-1887) had a stormy career. He often championed the unpopular side. He was a native of Kingfield, where he resided at the time of his marriage. He practised law there for a while but moved to Farmington, where he also pub-
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lished the Franklin Patriot. He was a Democrat of the old type as his newspaper demonstrated. With a growing law practice he next settled at Augusta in 1867, where he owned and published the Maine Standard till 1880. He then went to Allston, Mass., and during the first Cleveland administration was collector of internal revenue at Boston. He died at Allston. Mrs. Mae Green, his only surviving child, lives at Melrose Highlands.
Embden voted twice on a separate State of Maine. There was a town meeting Sept. 2, 1816, at which the town registered a de- cision, thirty-two yeas and seven nays as set down by Benjamin Colby, town clerk. A second vote was had Monday July 26, 1819, at a meeting held in the Cragin schoolhouse. It convened at 2 p. m. The question read : "Shall the District of Maine become a separate and independent state upon the terms and conditions in an act stated for that purpose?" The votes "brought in" were thirty-six, of which thirty-three were yes and three were no.
The town had a pronounced temperance sentiment during the first half century and later but never would turn out well for elections on prohibition issues. A vote was taken June 7, 1858 - as elsewhere in Maine- in relaton to the license law of April 7, 1856, and the prohibitory law approved March 25, 1858. It resulted in only five votes for the license law and 38 for the prohibitory law. Decisive as this was, but a fraction of the town was recorded as shown by voting the previous September at the election for Governor when Manasseh H. Smith had 109 in Embden and Lot M. Morrill (1813-1883) had 67. There was a vote June 3, 1867, for a further amendment of the law of 1858 to suppress drinking houses and tippling shops, which Embden favored almost two to one but the actual vote was : yes, 11 ; no, six.
Liquor was sold in Embden but in only a small way. Moses Thompson must have provided liquid refreshments for the way- farers at his inn, although there seems to be no public record of it. Joshua Gray, Jr., wrote in his official book "Oct. 8th. A. D. 1836" that "At a meeting of the selectmen, treasurer and clerk of the town of Embden holden at the dwelling house of Benja- min Gould, Jr., of said town on the fifth day of September, 1836. License was granted to Humphrey Purington to be a Retailer
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and common Victualer with liberty to sell all sorts of spirituous liquors by small measure during one year from date."
The regime of town liquor agencies is still within memory. Embden paid David Stevens, 2nd., $10 by town order in the 1850's for such services as agent.
Annual settlements with the town treasurer was an outstand- ing event in the town business naturally. John Pierce, Jr., the treasurer in 1834 lost his "books and papers" and there is noth- ing written to tell how or why but on May 23 the town decided that he "furnish new books for the purpose of keeping the treasurer's accounts on" and Benjamin Colby, Jr., John Mc- Fadden and Benjamin Gould, Jr., were named a committee to settle with him. When the Amos Hilton farm buildings were burned Eldwin Hilton was town treasurer. He lost his records and considerable money in the fire. The town was asked to re- lease him wholly or in part for his loss but the meeting of March 7, 1887, took no action on the request and a year later demanded payment from him or his bondsmen.
Up to that time and considerably later there were no conven- ient banking facilities and the treasurers often had considerable sums of money on hand. The custody of this was no small re- sponsibility. While there was an Anson Bank in 1874 and a Savings Bank at Solon in earlier years farming communities made limited use of deposit privileges and checking accounts in the modern sense were greatly restricted. Treasurer Joshua Gray in 1821 lost $2.60 from "bad money, bank failing." Town orders were written for nearly all services and became a much used medium of exchange. The bills of selectmen, treasurer and tax collector, wages of teachers and debts for the support of paupers were all paid primarily in this kind of paper. Most town orders drew interest at current rates. Some of course were ultimately paid in cash but many more were turned back to the collector on account of taxes. He therefore, became quite a modern clearing house.
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