Gazetteer of the state of Maine, Part 19

Author: Varney, George J
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Boston Russell
Number of Pages: 648

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The first settlers of this town were Samuel Knapp, Jonas Green, James Bawn, John Thomas, J. Stockbridge, Richard Morrill and Abraham Reed. The land was purchased by the settlers of a Mr. Brown of Newburyport, Mass. Skillertown is said to have been the Indian name.

Byron has three public schoolhouses, valued with land, at $500. The estates were valued in 1870 at $42,195. In 1880 they were set at $39,000. The population in 1870 was 242. In 1880 it was 191.

Calais is situated at the eastern extremity of Washington County at the head of the tide on the St. Croix River. It is bounded by Baring on the west, Robbinston on the south, and on the east and north by St. Andrews and St. Stephens, in New Brunswick. The St. Croix River forms the dividing line between Calais and the two latter places. The area of the town is 19,392 acres. The sheets of water are West Magurrewock Lake in the south-west, and East Magurrewock, stretching from the centre of the town southward, and about these, Beaver, Vose, and Round Lakes. Granite and slate are the prevailing rocks. The territory was formerly covered with dense forests of pine timber. When Napoleon excluded the British from the Baltic, they resorted to Calais for the supplies of timber necessary to their ship

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GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

yard. From that day to the present the place has been noted for its lumber business. Within city limits are eight valuable water-powers, of which five are improved. These improvements consisted, in 1860, of saw-mills having a total of twenty-one gangs of saws, capable of cutting annually 55,000,000 feet of long lumber ; nineteen lath-machines, cutting 49,000,000 laths ; shingle-machines, capable of cutting 2,500,000 shingles. There are also two planing-mills, one run by steam-power, one planing-machine factory, one saw-factory, two axe-factories, and four grain-mills. The aggregate annual production of the last is 70,000 bushels of grain converted into meal and flour, and of the axe factory, 600 dozen axes. The value of the annual production of Calais mills is about $2,000,000. There remains a large surplus of power unused, and a cotton-mill and other industries are projected. Other manufactures are bricks, bedsteads, brooms, carriages, plaster, ships, etc. There are two marine railways and one dry-dock. Being a port on waters navig- able by large vessels, and having a harbor open nine months in the year, the facility of transportation enables the products to be placed in sea-coast markets at a lower cost than those of almost any other lumber-making place. At Red Beach are immense deposits of varie- gated granite, which are extensively wrought, and about which quite a village has sprung up. In 1872, besides laths, clapboard and shingle- mills, there were in operation at Calais and Baring thirty-eight mills, mostly owned by residents of Calais. Calais is connected with the towns up river as far as Princeton by the St. Croix and Penobscot Railway, which will probably, in a few years, be extended to a con- nection with the European and North American. A connection of Calais with the latter road is already made by means of the St. An- drews branch, which here crosses the river by a bridge. There are also three highway bridges connecting Calais with St. Andrew and St. Stephens. Surrounding towns including Eastport, 30 miles south, are reached by stages ; and various sea-ports, east and west, by the Fron- tier and International steamboat lines. . The Post-Offices are Calais, Milltown at the northern, and Red Beach at the southern border. The telegraphic connection is also good.

Calais is a small, but pleasing city. There are many tasteful and handsome residences. Several of the streets have shade-trees of recent, and others ancient of growth ; and some have charming vistas. There is an odor of pine lumber about the city, with just enough of the pro- vincial character accompanying to give a fresh and attractive flavor to the place.

The first permanent white settler of Calais was Daniel Hill, from Jonesboro, Me., who made a clearing on Ferry Point. He was an athletic and fearless man, and had served in the Indian war of 1758-60. The Indians about him knew this fact, and greatly feared him, though he kindly aided and instructed them in their farming. Samuel Hill came in 1781. In 1782 Daniel Hill, Jacob Libby and Jeremiah Frost built the first saw-mill, the location being near the mouth of Porter's Stream. There were so few men that the women assisted in raising the frame. Daniel Hill brought in the first oxen and did the first farm- ing. By order of the General Court of Massachusetts, the territory along the southern part of St. Croix was, in 1789, divided into town- ships. In June of the same year the township which is now Calais was sold to Waterman Thomas of Waldobrough, Me., for the sum of £672.

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CALAIS.

About six years later Mr. Thomas sold half the township to Shubael Downes, of Walpole, Mass., one quarter to Edward H. Robbins, of Mil- ton, Mass., and one-quarter to Abiel Woods. Subsequently Edmund Monroe bought a large portion of the lands of Downes and Woods. A few years later Samuel Jones re-surveyed the township and divided it into settlers' lots of 50 to 100 acres each; and Jones's lines still remain the boundary and farm lines. In 1801 Jairus Keen, from Duxbury, Mass., built at Calais the first vessel launched on this river, naming it "Liberty." In 1803 a saw-mill was erected at Milltown by Abner Hill and others; the machinery working so effectively that this be- came known as the "Brisk Mill." Stephen Brewer, Esq., of Boston, who became a resident of Calais in 1804 or 1805, was the first to ex- port sawed lumber from Calais. He was educated, of good property, and soon became influential. He presided at the first town-meeting, was the first justice of the peace, and first post-master. He introduced the first wagon, and aided liberally in fitting and furnishing the first church. His widow, in 1815, received a chaise from the Boston friends of her late husband ; and this was the first carriage of the kind seen in Calais. Shubael Downes, Jr., a proprietor, constructed the first grist- mill, and kept the first hotel. The first bridge across the St. Croix was at Milltown, built in 1825. The bridge between Calais and St. Stephen was erected in 1826. In 1849-50 a railroad was built con- necting Calais with Baring, and a few years later it was extended up the St. Croix to Princeton. Calais was originally township No. 5. It was incorporated as a town in 1809, and was granted a city charter in 1850.

In a later period, Frederick A., James S. and Charles E. Pike, sons of William Pike, an early settler, became distinguished in finance authorship and politics. Frederick represented his native district in Congress eight years, and James S. was several years on the editorial staff of the New York " Tribune." Another resident of Calais, the wife of Hon. F. A. Pike, before mentioned, is the author of the novels, " Ida May," " Caste " and " Agnes "; and Harriett Prescott Spofford, of Newburyport, Mass., the popular magazinist, was a native of this place.

Calais was incorporated as a town in 1809, and as a city in 1850 ; Hon. George Downes being chosen as the first mayor. Calais Savings Bank, at the beginning of the present decade, held in deposits and profits the sum of $172,651.47. The Calais National Bank has a cap- ital of $100,000. The "Calais Advertiser," issued every Wednesday by John Jackson, Esq., is a sterling newspaper. It is republican in politics. The "Times " is a newsy sheet published every Friday by Messrs. Whidden & Rose. It is an organ of the greenback party.

The first minister who preached in Calais was Rev. Duncan McCall in 1790. The Congregational society, was organized in 1825, and the first church edifice was built in the year following. Revs. Mark Traf- ton and Jeremiah Eaton were among the first itinerant preachers in these parts. There are now several handsome houses of worship in Calais, and the usual religious societies to be found in a place of this size. The city has seventeen public schoolhouses, and the school pro- perty reaches a valuation of $50,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $1,523,452. In 1880 it was $1,732,056. The population in 1870 was 5,944. In 1880 it was 6,172.

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GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

Cambridge is the north-eastern town of Somerset County. It is the northern half of a six miles square township, the southern half being Ripley. Main Stream, a tributary of the Sebasticook River, passing through the original township diagonally toward the south- west, forms the dividing line between the two towns. It adjoins Harmony on the west, Dexter, in Penobscot County, on the east, and Parkman, in Piscataquis County, on the north The surface of the town is generally undulating, with few high elevations, Ham Hill having the greatest altitude. The maple is the most numerous tree in the forests The soil is loamy, and yields good crops of wheat, corn and potatoes. Cambridge. Pond, about midway of the western part of the town, is the principal sheet of water. Ferguson Stream, rising in large bogs at the north, runs southward across the southern part of the town, furnishing at Cambridge Village a power sufficient to run a saw-mill and a flour-mill. This village lies between Ferguson Stream and Cam- bridge Pond, and is the principal centre of business. The place is 70 miles from Augusta, and 24 north-east of Skowhegan, It is on the stage-line from Pittsfield to Harmony. The nearest railroad station is at Dexter, 10 miles east.

There are Baptist, Free Baptist and Christian societies in the town, and a Baptist and a Union church. Cambridge has five public school- houses, valued with the other school property at $1,200. The valua- tion of estates in 1870 was $109,182. In 1880 it was $117,312. The rate of taxation in the latter year was 16 mills on th deollar. The pop- ulation in 1870 was 472, and in 1880 it remained exactly the same.

Camden is situated on the west side of Penobscot Bay, and is the north-eastern town of Knox County. Rockland bounds it on the south, Hope on the north-west, Penobscot Bay on the east and Lin- colnville, in Waldo County, on the north. The area is 26,880 acres. The surface is broken and mountainous, and the Indian name of the place (Megunticook) signifying great sea-swells, is properly descrip- tive. There are grouped within the town five mountains, spoken of in early times as Mathebestucks Hills. Mount Megunticook is 1,265 feet in height ; and of Mount Beatty, Bald Mountain, Ragged Mountain and Mount Pleasant, no summit falls below 900 feet above the sea. They range in general from north-east to south-west, and are more or less clothed with 'forest trees quite to their tops. The summit of Megunticook affords one of the noblest of marine prospects, embracing Penobscot Bay with its islands, Mount Desert at the east, and a vast sweep of the ocean on the south-east. These are possibly the moun- tains mentioned by Captain Weymouth, as seen in his voyage in 1605, and by Captain Smith in 1614. They are visible 20 leagues distant. They are supposed to have been the boundary between the great Bashaba's dominions, situated on the west, and those of the Tarratines on the east and north. Mount Beatty, 900 feet in height and three- fourths of a mile from the village, was during the war of 1812 furnished with a battery consisting of one 12 and one 18 pounder. Though there were no gunners qualified to manage the battery, and few soldiers in town, this appearance of readiness for defense kept the British in check.

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CAMDEN.

In the war of the Revolution the place did not escape so easily. After the British, in 1779, occupied Castine, Camden became the only place upon the Penobscot of general rendezvous for the Americans. A small force was encamped here, believed to have been under the com- mand of Captain George Ulmer, afterward major general of militia, state senator and sheriff. In one of their descents on the place, the British burned the saw mill on Megunticook Stream. They also set fire to the grist-mill, but it was extinguished by Leonard Metcalf and and a small party, who bravely drove the assailants to their barges.

Camden was a part of the Waldo patent, and the township passed into the ownership of the " Twenty Associates," becoming Megunticook plantation. It was surveyed by David Fales, of Thomaston, in 1768, and settlements were commenced a few years after on Goose River, Clam Cove and Megunticook, and mills erected. The first settler was James Richards, who commenced a settlement at the mouth of the Megunticook in 1769. Robert Thorndike together with Peter Ott, Paul Thorndike, Harkness and Ballard, about the same time commenced one at what is now Rockport village. Gregory, Buckland, Porterfield and Upham were the pioneers of the settlement at Clam Cove. The town was incorporated in 1791, being named in honor of Lord Camden a parliamentary friend of the colonies in the Revolution.

Camden has six ponds,-Lily, Hosmer's, Canaan, Grassy, Rocky, and Oyster, containing from 65 to 900 acres. There are five con- siderable streams and twenty-one water-powers. Fourteen of these are on Megunticook Stream, the outlet of Canaan, or Megunticook Pond, situated, about 2} miles from Camden Harbor. The stream is, however, some 3} miles long, and in this distance has a fall of about 150 feet. The manufactures at Camden village consist of foundry products, rail- road cars, woolens and paper-mill feltings, anchors, wedges, plugs and treenails, planking, powder-kegs, excelsior, mattresses, powder, barrel- head machines, tin-ware, oakum, wool-rolls, carriages, boots and shoes, leather, flour and meal, ships and boats. At Rockport, the manufac- tures are ships, boats, sails, capstans and windlasses, lime, bricks, tin- ware, meal, boots and shoes, patent clothes-dryers; and a considerable business is done in ice. At West Camden, are made corn-brooms, carriages, cooperage, meal, lime, etc. At Rockville, the products are carriages, and boots and shoes. There are operated in town sixteen lime-kilns, three shipyards, four grist-mills and six saw-mills. Lime- stone is the principal rock underlying the soil. The latter is generally sand and clay,-a diluvial formation. Hay is the principal crop ex- ported. Camden village is on the stage line from Bangor to Rockland, and is 8 miles from the latter place. The nearest railroad station is at Rockland. Camden is also on the steamboat line from Portland and Boston to Bangor.

Each of the villages has its peculiar attraction in elegant buildings, fine situation, or streets shaded with trees of elm, locust, maple and horse-chesnut. The post-offices are at Camden village, Rockport, West Camden and Rockville. Camden Saving's Bank at the close of 1879, held deposits and profits to the amount of $145,672.72. Camden National Bank has a capital of $50,000. The " Camden Herald " is a spirited and ably conducted sheet, a good collector of local as well as national and foreign news. At this date it advocates the measures of the greenback party. It is issued every Saturday by W. W. Perry.

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GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

Among the eminent citizens were Hons. Jonathan Thayer, Erastus Foote, E. K. Smart, Joseph Hall, and William Merriam. Camden furnished 300 men for the armies of the Union during the war of the Rebellion, of whom 90 were lost. The churches of the town number three Methodist, two Episcopal, four Baptist, two Universalist. At Camden village is an excellent new town-hall, having an audience- room capable of seating 600 persons. The cost of the building was $12,000. In the villages are three libraries, and two book-clubs. The larger villages have graded schools. The town has sixteen public schoolhouses. The total school property is valued at $11,650. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $1,497,631. In 1880 it was $1,676,536. The rate of taxation in 1880 was 17 mills on the dollar. The popula- tion in 1870 was 4,512. In 1880 it was 4,386.

Canaan lies in the southern part of Somerset County, and is bounded by Clinton, in Kennebec County, on the south. On the west is Skowhegan ; north, Hartland ; east, Pittsfield ; all Somerset towns. Canaan is about 10 miles long, north and south, and 4 wide. Its area is 15,891 acres. The surface is generally rough. The north- eastern part is occupied by an extensive bog; the north-western, by pine plains. The chief eminences are Goodwin and Chase hills and . Barnes's Ledge, each about 600 feet in height. Sibley, Long and Round are the principal sheets of water. The first l'es across the eastern border, and is two miles long by one wide. Lond Pond lies on the western line, and is one and a half miles long by one wide. The water surface of the town is about 500 acres. The outcropping rock is principally granitic. The soil is a clayey loam, and yields excellent crops of hay and potatoes. The town has four saw-mills manufac- turing long and short lumber, and one grist-mill. Canaan village, on the outlet of Sibley Pond, a little south-west of the middle of the town, is the centre of business. The place is 8 miles east of Skowhegan. being on the stage-line to Pishon's Ferry, on the Maine Central Railroad; 6 miles distant.

Canaan was a part of the Plymouth Patent, and was settled about 1770. Peter Heywood was the first settler; and from him the locality . became known as Heywoodstown. John Jones surveyed it for the proprietors in 1779. Its plantation name was Wesserunset, from the stream entering the Kennebec a few miles to the west. The name was chosen because the place seemed to, them fair and fertile, like the land of promise. It was incorporated in 1788, at which time it embraced Skowhegan. The latter was set off from it in 1822. A post-office was first established in the town in 1793. The plantation records com- mence in 1783. Benjamin Shepherd was it first representative in the Legislature. Among the valued citizens of a later period should be mentioned Wentworth Tuttle, Levi Johnson, Sullivan Holman, and others whose full names are not yet forwarded. The town lost 18 men of her quota engaged in the Union cause in the war of the Rebellion.

The Rev. Nathan Whitaker was settled in 1784, and dismissed in 1788 ; Rev. Jonathan Calef succeeding him in 1794, and remaining five years. Rev. J. Cayford filled the pastoral office from 1809 to 1813. There are now in the town Universalist, Free Baptist, Advent and Christian societies, who use the church edifice in common. Amateur theatricals and band concerts are the principal public entertainments.

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CANTON.

There is a public library of about 350 volumes. Canaan has twelve public schoolhouses, valued with the other school property at $5,000. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $346,395. In 1880 it was $350,- 573. The rate of taxation in the latter year was 13 mills on the dollar. The population in 1870 was 1,472. In 1880 it was 1,281.

Canada Road, a post-office in Somerset County.

Canton is the most easterly town in Oxford County. It is about 6 miles in width at the middle, and its greatest length is, north and south, about 9 miles. From west to east, through the midst, flows the Androscoggin in a zigzag course. In its great southern bend at the centre of the town is Canton Point village and post-office. On the southern side, at this point, the Androscoggin receives Whitney Brook, the outlet of Whitney Pond, which occupies a portion of the south-western area of the town. At a fine water-power on the outlet near the pond is Canton village and post office. Here are Canton Mills, consisting of a saw-mill manufacturing short lumber, a shook and stave mill, and a grist-mill. Other manufactories are the steam- mill of the Canton Steam Mill Company, a carriage and zinc wash-board factory, a foundry, a furniture and moulding factory, a tannery, the Den- nison Paper Manufacturing Company, and several small establishments.

The surface of the outskirts of the town is quite uneven, while the centre is smooth and level. Along the river and Whitney Pond and Brook is much fine interval, and the town is not surpassed by any for agricultural purposes, At Canton Point, the Rockomeko of the Indians, there is a large and beautiful tract of interval, which, at its first occupation by white people, showed the hills which usually mark long-forsaken cornfielos, The mountain situated north of the point was also called by the Indians "Rockomeko." The tribe which inhabited here were probably a clan of the Pequakets, whose principal residence was Fryeburg. The Rockomekos were entirely exterminated by the small pox, during the war with the French and Indians, in 1757. Implements such as they used have frequently been turned out of the soil at this point, and a burying ground, containing many of their skeletons, has also come to light.

Whitney Pond received its name from a hunter who had been wounded by the savages and left for dead, but had revived and crawled to a camp beside the pond. His companions, while in search of him, came upon the camp, and supposing the figure they saw within to be an Indian, they fired upon him, but on entering, found they had killed their comrade.

The first efforts at settlement were made in 1790 or 1792. William Livermore, William French, Joseph Coolidge and Alexander Shepherd were among the earliest settlers. This township was included in the tract which first became known as Phipp's Canada. It was first in- corporated as a part of Jay in 1795, but was set off and incorporated under its present name February 5, 1821. It is 20 miles north- east of Paris, about 60 miles north of Portland, and 25 miles north north-west of Lewiston and Auburn. It is the terminus of Rumford Falls and Buckfield Railroad.

Canton has Baptist, Free Baptist and Universalist societies. all of which have good church-edifices. The number of public schoolhouses

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GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

in town .s nine, valued, with other school property, at $4,000. The valuation of estates, in 1870, was $395,993. In 1880, it was $367,693. The population in 1870 was 984. In 1880 it was 1,030.

Cape Elizabeth is the most seaward town of Cumberland County. It constitutes a broad peninsula lying between Fore River, Spurwink River and the sea. Scarborough is the adjoining town on the south-west, Westbrook, Deering and Portland, on the north, and around the southern and eastern parts flows the sea. It is separated from Portland by Fore River, and Spurwink River cuts deeply into its south-western side. Its north-eastern projection forms the southern shore of Portland Harbor. The town, including Richmond Island, has an area of 12,881 acres. The soil is various, being in different parts a red, brown, and a black loam, with some sand and clay. Being near so good a market as Portland, the buildings of the rural districts have a neat and thrifty aspect. Great Pond and Small Pond, in the southern

PORTLAND LIGHT.

part, are the principal bodies of water. Richmond Island, lying a mile from the southern shore, was the first locality occupied by Europeans on this part of the coast. The first settler was Walter Bagnall (called "Great Walt,") who came here in 1628, occupying the island without a title. His principal purpose appears to have been to drive a profitable trade with the Indians, without much scruple about his methods. At length his cupidity drew down upon him their vengeance and they put an end to his life in October, 1631. Two months later, the council of the Plymouth Company granted the Island and certain other territory to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, merchants of Plymouth, England, who soon made it the centre of their American trade. The island was convenient to the fishing and coasting business, and it soon became a place of much importance. There is a record that, before 1648, large ships took in cargoes for Europe there. In

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CAPE ELIZABETH.

1638 a ship of 300 tons was sent here laden with wine, and the same year Mr. Trelawney employed 60 men in the fisheries. In the following year, John Winter, the agent of Trelawney, sent to England, in the bark Richmond, 6,000 pipe-staves. After the death of Winter, about 1648, its business declined, and at the breaking out of the first Indian war came entirely to an end. The island contains about 200 acres, and now constitutes a single farm. In 1637, by the aid of the proprietors, Rev. Richard Gibson, an Episcopal minister, was settled on the island, and the necessary appurtenances of worship in the English form were provided. Mr. Gibson removed to Portsmouth in 1640, and in 1642 he returned to England. Many years ago an earthern pot was exhumed upon the Island, and within was found a number of gold and silver coins of the 17th century, and a heavy gold signet ring, richly chased, and marked by two initials letters. This ring has given the title to an historical novel by Dr. Ilsley, the chief action of which is placed upon this Island.

The next residents within the limits of Cape Elizabeth were Richard Tucker and John Cleeves, who located upon Spurwink River in 1630, carrying on together the business of planting, fishing and trading. Two years later they were driven off by the agent of Sir Alexander Rigby, who had become the owner of the Plough, or Lygonia Patent, covering all this section of the coast. They removed to Casco Neck, where in 1632, they built the first house within the limits of Portland. Gibson's successor in his religious charge was Rev. Robert Jordan, who married Winter's daughter and succeeded to his estate. In administer- ing upon this, for money due Winter on account of services rendered Trelawney, Jordan obtained an order from the Lygonian government to seize upon all the estate of the latter, and in this manner he acquired a title to a large tract of land, including Cape Elizabeth, which has never been shaken. The first settlers of Porpooduck (that part of Cape Elizabeth which lies upon Fore River), whoever they may have been, were driven off in the first Indian war, in 1675. The first re- settlement appears to have been in 1699 by a few families only. When the French and Indians under Beaubarin were foiled in their attempt upon the fort in Scarborough, they turned to Spurwink and Porpooduck. At the former place, inhabited principally by the Messrs. Jordan and their families, 22 persons were killed or taken captive. At the latter place were 9 families unprotected by any fortification, and at the time of attack not a man was at home; and the savages here slaughtered 25, and carried away 8 persons. It is said that the crew of a visiting vessel first discovered these corpses, burying all in one vault at each place. The settlement upon Porpooduck Point commenced forty-four years prior King Philips' war (1675). Among them were several families by the name of Wallace. After its destruction in the third Indian war (1703), there seems to have been no settlement until 1719 or 1720. In 1734 a church was formed, and the Rev. Benj. Allen settled as minister ; and in 1752 the inhabitants were formed into a parish. Cape Elizabeth was incorporated as a town in 1765, but only with "District " privileges, which did not allow of a representation entirely its own in the legislature. The town, therefore, joined with Falmouth in the choice of representatives until 1776. It was represented in that year for the first time, the member being James Leach.

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Gazetteer of the state of Maine, Part 19

Author: Varney, George J Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Boston Russell Number of Pages: 648

Author: Varney, George J
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Boston Russell
Number of Pages: 648