Gazetteer of the state of Maine, Part 57

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

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PORTLAND.

Building, an imposing structure, having a frontage of 150 feet, a length of 221 feet, with corner towers 75 feet high, and a central dome that swells upward 160 feet. Its front is of a light-colored Nova Scotia Albert-stone, and the sides and rear of pressed brick with Albert-stone trimmings. Its cost was $650,000. In it, besides city and county rooms and offices, are the Public Library, containing 26,000 volumes, and the library of the Maine Historical Society. There are also two excellent halls in the building, the largest of which, an elegant apart- ment, will conveniently seat 2,500 people.

At the foot of Hancock street on the corner of Fore street, stands " the old square wooden house upon the edge of the sea," in which the poet Longfellow was born. Turning to Commercial street, a short walk brings us to the Custom house, a handsome structure of granite, -which also has a front on Fore street. On the opposite side of Com- mercial street, not far away, is the extensive and massive "Thomas Block," built by Hon. William W. Thomas, one of the oldest and most successful merchants of Portland,-who has added beauty and value to the city by the erection of many elegant buildings.

The site of the first settlement in Portland is now occupied by the depot, the immense elevator, and other buildings of the Grand Trunk Railway. The settlers were George Cleeves and Richard Tucker,- who here built their house, cleared land, and planted the first corn-in 1632. They were squatters at first; but in 1637, Cleeves went to England and obtained from Sir Ferdinand Gorges, proprietor of this region, a grant of the peninsula on which they had built, and other neighboring lands and islands. These he parcelled out to settlers, and a small community soon grew up, and became known as Casco. Fish- ing, cultivation of the soil, and trade with the Indians, formed the business. In 1658, Massachusetts usurped the government of Gorges' territory, and applied the name Falmouth to Casco Neck, and a wide extent of territory about this harbor ; but the peninsula continued to be called Casco Neck until its incorporation as Portland in 1786. Falmouth at first embraced, in addition to the Neck, the territory now belonging to the towns of Cape Elizabeth, Deering, Westbrook and the present Falmouth. With incorporation came the settlement of a minister, and the people built the first meeting-house on the point now occupied by the Portland Company's works. The first minister was Rev. George Burroughs, a graduate of Harvard University, who began to preach there in 1674. When the town was destroyed by the Indians in 1690, he went to Danvers; and two years afterward he was executed at Salem as a wizard. When the savages fell upon the place in 1676, of the 40 families in town, only four or five lived upon the Neck. In 1678 old settlers returned ; and Fort Loyal, the largest fortification on the coast, was erected on a rocky eminence where the round-house of the Grand Trunk Railway now stands. A party of Huguenots, or French Protestants, came in as settlers about this time. The town now began to prosper,-mills were set up, and roads were laid out,-mere foot- paths, however, as no vehicles had yet been introduced. In 1681, the first tavern was opened. In 1688, the population of Falmouth had in- creased to 600 or 700, comprising 80 families, 25 of whom were on the Neck. In 1689, during the second Indian war, a large body of their warriors approached the town. Major Church, arriving with two com- panies just at the nick of time, met the Indians in the valley on the

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north side of Bramhall's Hill, and, after a sharp fight, drove them off ; losing in the contest eleven killed and ten wounded. The next year, 500 French and Indians, after a siege of five days, captured the fort, and carried the garrison captive to Canada.

From this time until after the close of Queen Anne's war in 1713, the place remained " deserted Casco." With its settlement in 1715, begins the second period of its history, which ends with its destruction by Mowatt in 1775. The new settlement was on nearly the same site as the old. In 1727, Rev. Thomas Smith commenced in the place his long ministry of over sixty-eight years.

In the course of half a century a great trade with the West Indies, as well as with England, sprang up ; so that on Nov. 1, 1766, six large ships were lying in the harbor. At the commencement of the Revolu- tion, 2,555 tons of shipping were owned in what is now Portland : and the population was about 2,000. Its patriotism was then as prompt as has ever since been. No vantage was allowed for the enforce- ment of the Stamp Act; the hated stamps being seized and burned as soon as they arrived ; and when the tax was placed upon tea, a popular assemblage resolved "that we will not buy nor sell any India tea what- ever; " and when the British government closed the port of Boston in 1774, the bell of Falmouth meeting-house was muffled and tolled from sunrise to sunset. Incensed by his capture and detention here in the previous spring by a party of militia from Brunswick, Capt. Henry Mowatt, in October, 1775, entered the harbor with a fleet of five war vessels, and on the 18th of that month, laid the town in ashes. The citizens nobly refused to give up their arms to secure the immunity of their village, but mostly fled into the country, taking with them what they could carry of their goods. Out of 514 buildings, only 100 dwell- ing-houses were left standing. Thus for the third time, the town was desolated. With the acknowledgment of our independence as a nation, a period of prosperity again began. There were not only business but social changes. "Distinctions of rank and of dress," says Elwell, " gave way before the democratic spirit of the times ; cocked hats, bush wigs, and breeches passed out, and pantaloons came in. Capt. Joseph Titcomb created quite a sensation when he returned home from the South, in 1790, wearing the latter form of the nether garment, the first seen here." In 1785, the first brick house in town was commenced, and the first newspaper appeared, the "Falmouth Gazette," published by Benjamin Titcomb and Thomas B. Waite. The same author pre- viously quoted says, " In 1786, the town was divided, and the Neck, with the name of Portland, started on an independent career, with a population of about 2,000. In 1793, wharves were extended into the harbor. In 1795, Nathaniel Deering built the first brick store. In 1799, the first bank was incorporated. Trade advanced westward from the old site at the foot of India street, and in 1800, Exchange (then called Fish) street was the principal seat of business." Then the wealthier merchants began to build them more stately residences, fitted to the increasing refinement and the more lavish expenditure. Such are the Matthew Cobb house, still standing at the corner of High and Free streets ; the mansion built by Ebenezer Storer, on the corner of High and Danforth street ; that built by Joseph H. Ingraham, on State street ; and the fine old mansion on the corner of High and Spring streets, long the residence of the late General Wingate ; all

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giving evidence of the architectural taste and thorough workmanship of the olden time.

The non-intercourse policy adopted by the general government in 1806, and the embargo which followed in 1807, brought a disastrous and sudden check to all this prosperity. "Navigation fell off 9,000 tons in two years; and all the various classes to whom it gave support were thrown out of employment; eleven commercial houses stopped payment in 1807, and many others the following year. * * * In the war of 1812, which followed, our sea-faring people manned the priva- teers fitted out here, some of which ran a successful career, and did

WAS ONE

CITY HALL, PORTLAND.

great damage to the enemy, while others were soon captured by supe- rior force, and their crews held as prisoners."

The fourth period in the history of Portland begins with the peace of 1815, and continues to the commencement of the railroad era in 1846. This was a period of slow recovery from the disasters of the war. In March 1820, the district of Maine was separated from Mass- achusetts and admitted into the Union as a State, and Portland became its capital. In 1823, the first steamer ever brought to Maine arrived in the harbor. This was the Patent, a vessel of about 100 tons burthen, owned by Capt. Seward Porter, of this city, who had bought her in New York to run as a passenger-boat between Boston and Portland.

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Both Jonathan Morgan and Captain Porter had previously experi. mented with steamboats of their own construction ; the Kennebec, built by the latter in 1822, having been the first to run in Casco Bay. In 1833, the steamer Chancellor Livingston, built under the direction of Robert Fulton, ran between Portland and Boston ; and the Cumber- land Steam Navigation Company, formed in the same year, put the steamer Commodore MeDonough on the route in opposition. The Cumberland and Oxford Canal connecting the waters of Lake Sebago with Portland Harbor, was begun in 1828, completed in 1830, at a cost of §206,000. This helped the business of the town somewhat ; yet the steamboats and the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad, opened in 1842, took much Portland business to Boston. A new railroad con- necting with Boston diverted also to that city the trade of northern Vermont, which had previously come through the north of the White Mountains to Portland. The fifth period commenced with the opening of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad to Canada, in 1853. To aid in its construction, Portland loaned its credit in bonds to the amount of $2,000,000. This Grand Trunk road brought the city in connection not only with the cities of Canada, but with the vast grain- growing regions of the West. Then came, as necessary adjuncts of the road, a winter line of steamers to Liverpool, and the construction of a new business avenue along the whole water front of the city, a mile long and 100 feet wide, running over tide water, across the heads of wharves. This is Commercial street, the scene of a large wholesale trade in flour, grain and groceries. Then came the building of the system of railroads, now consolidated under the name of the Maine Central, opening to the trade of Portland all parts of the State, and the Lower Provinces of Canada. Then Brown's Sugar House and the Portland Company's Works, and other manufacturing establishments sprang np, giving employment to hundreds of people.

The financial panic of 1857-8 brought no serious disaster to the business of the city ; and trade had again attained to a flourishing con- dition, when the war of the Slaveholder's Rebellion broke out. Port- land, as usual, was prompt to the demands of patriotism,-six companies of the First Maine regiment, Colonel Jackson, having been raised here. Later regiments organized in Portland were the 5th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 25th. The latter was a nine-months regiment of Port- land boys, led by Col. Francis Fessenden. In all, Portland contributed to the army and navy of the Union during the war, 5,000 men to whom she paid a bounty of $428,970. Of these, 421 lost their lives in battle, or by disease. Her citizens also contributed largely in aid of the san- itary and Christian commissions, and many of her noble women gave their services in nursing the sick and wounded.

One morning in June, 1863, the United States Revenue cutter Caleb Cushing, was missed from her moorings, and Revenue Collector Jewett and Mayor Mclellan, promptly manning and arming the steamers Forest City and Chesapeake, found her in the hands of the rebels, becalmed near Green Islands. On discovering the approaching vessels, her captors set her on fire, and took to their boats. She presently blew up; and the rebel crew were soon captured by the pursuing steamers, and lodged in Fort Preble, as prisoners of war. During the war, much shipping of Portland had been transferred to the British flag; but the business of the city did not otherwise suffer much loss.

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On the 4th of July, 1866, a carelessly thrown cracker set fire to a boat-builder's shop on Commercial street, whence the flames were soon communicated to Brown's Sugar House; whence it swept on diago- nally through the city, spreading like a fan as it went. Entire streets were swept away, including massive warehouses, lofty churches, splen- did mansions, ancestral houses and the dwellings of the poor, in the oldest and most crowded parts of the city in one common ruin. For nearly half a day, and through the night until the small hours of the morning, the vast volumes of flame and smoke held sway, sending ter- ror and anguish among the whole population. The fire ended near Munjoy's Hill. The morning saw fifteen hundred buildings laid in ashes ; fifty-eight streets and courts reduced to a wilderness of chim- neys, amid which the most familiar inhabitant lost himself ; ten thou-

RUSSELL . RICHARDSON-SO

CUSTOM HOUSE, PORTLAND.

sand people made homeless, and ten millions of property destroyed. Villages of tents and barracks sprang up on Munjoy, and generous contributions from abroad flowed in, providing food, shelter and cloth- ing for the penniless.

In rebuilding, old streets were widened and straightened, and new ones opened; and, after a lapse of ten years, the waste places were almost wholly rebuilt, far more roomy, convenient and handsome than before. Meantime the increase of the business facilities of the city went on. In 1873, the Boston and Maine Railroad was extended from South Berwick to Portland, taking on its way Old Orchard Beach. In 1875, the Portland and Rochester Railroad completed its connections

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with Nashua, N. H., and Worcester, Mass. The same year, the Port- land and Ogdensburg Railroad was completed through the Notch of the White Mountains. In the same period, various manufactures sprang up within the city or in its vicinity, as the rolling of railroad iron, the making of carriages, shoes, matches, stoneware, and drain- pipes ; and these products find a market all over the United States, and, to some extent, in foreign countries. In 1870, Lake Sebago water was introduced by aqueduct all through the city, and the sewerage ren- dered more complete. Broad and regular streets, handsome and sub- stantial business blocks, elegant and commodious dwellings, good drain- age well-lighted streets, pure water, excellent air, convenient convey- ance in and out of the city, by horse and steam cars,-numerous shade- trees, unsurpassed views of sea and shore, good schools, well-attended churches, and a moral, industrious, enterprising and courteous people- these render Portland one of the most desirable of cities for a home and business. There are now living in the city a large number of per- sons over eighty years of age.

Among those who have contributed largely to make Portland what it is in these various respects, must be mentioned the following names : George Cleeves, a first settler and proprietor, and Rev. Thomas Smith, the first have already been mentioned. Not only was Mr. Smith for a long period, the only minister, but also the only physician in town. Another distinguished citizen of the anti-Revolutionary period was General Jedediah Preble, who had served in the French wars, and at the breaking out of the Revolution, was prevented from being the principal military officer of Massachusetts only by the infirmities of years. Worthy of honorable mention, also, are Theophilus Bradbury and David Wyer, earliest members of Cumberland bar. Samuel Freeman, school-teacher, trader, and Revolutionary patriot, a deacon of the First Parish forty-five years, delegate to the Provincial Con- gress, Judge of Probate forty-five years, post-master twenty-eight years, president of the Maine Bank and president of Bowdoin College for a number of years, with other offices ; also the publisher of several law-books. About 1770, Theophilus Parsons, afterwards Chief Justice of Massachusetts, became a citizen, studied law, and was admitted to the Cumberland bar. Sheriff William Tyng, most prominent of the Maine Tories, was also a citizen of this town. A little later was Simon Greenleaf, distinguished as a member of the Cumberland bar, a learned jurist and writer on law ; Stephen Longfellow, father of the poet, long in the successful practice of the law in the Cumberland courts ; Pren- tiss Mellen, chief justice of the State; Ezekiel Whitman, member of Congress for four terms, and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Maine ; Samuel Fessenden, the able lawyer, orator and philanthropist; Albion K. Parris, Governor of the State at the age of thirty-three years, and long in successful practice here; William Pitt Preble, a judge and Minister to the Netherlands; Arthur Ware, a learned writer on Maritime law, and judge of the United States District Court for forty-four years; Ether Shepley, long chief justice of the State; George F. Shepley, son of Ether, a brave soldier, and later, judge of the United States Circuit Court, who died a few years after his father. Of orators and statesmen of national reputation, Sargent S. Prentiss- though he won his reputation in the south-was born here; and Wil- liam Pitt Fessenden, the distinguished U. S. senator and secretary of

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the Treasury, was always a citizen of this town. Hon. George Evans, another U. S. senator from Maine, was for some time a resident,- as was also Hon. George T. Davis, a former member of Congress from Massachusetts, and Hon. Horatio King, acting Postmaster General for sometime. Other noted citizens were Commodore Edward Preble, hero of Tripoli ; Rear Admiral Alden, who served in the war of 1812, and in the Mexican war; and Commodore George H. Preble, who has served long and well. Of literary men who were sons or residents, or both, are Henry W. Longfellow, N. P. Willis, John Neal, Nathanicl Deering, Isaac McLellan, Grenville Mellen, Bishop Horatio Southgate, S. B. Beckett, D. C. Colesworthy, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, Mrs. Elizabeth Akers Allen, J. H. Ingraham, Seba Smith, Charles P. Ilsley, Rev. Elijah Kellogg, George Payson, William Law Symonds, Sarah Payson Willis (Fanny Fern), Mrs. Samuel Coleman, Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, Mrs. Elizabeth (Payson) Prentice, Mrs. Clara Barnes Martin, Mrs.

POST-OFFICE, PORTLAND.

Margaret J. M. Sweat, Prof. Edward S. Morse, Mrs. Abba Goold Woolson, Rev. Dr. Cyrus Bartol, Rev. Dr. J. W. Chickering, Rev. Dr. Samuel Deane, Rev. Dr. Thomas Hill, Rev. Dr. Ichabod Nichols, Rev. Dr. Edward Payson, Rev. Asa Cummings, Rev. W. T. Dwight, Rev. William B. Hayden, Rev. Jason Whitman, Dr. J. W. Mighells, Dr. Isaac Ray, Hon. William Goold, Hon. William Willis, Col. Z. A. Smith, Henry A. S. Dearborn, John A. Poor, William B. Sewall, Wal- ter Wells, and many others. Of artists, Portland has been the resi- dence of Charles Codman, Charles O. Cole, J. R. Tilton, Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, Charles E. Becket, J. G. Cloudman, Harry B. Brown, Fred-

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erick Kimball, Miss Maria Becket, John B. Hudson, Charles J. Schumacher, and others. Eminent names among Portland merchants who have passed away, are Matthew Cobb, Asa Clapp, William Chad- wick, Albert Newhall, Joseph Cross, Ralph Cross, Arthur Mclellan, James Deering, Benjamin Willis, Samuel Trask, Reuben Morton, and John B. Brown. [See notice of latter on page 611.]

Portland has eighteen church-edifices, including the cathedrals of the Episcopal and Roman Catholic denominations. There are also as many as twenty-five societies more or less benevolent in their objects, besides several others of an intellectual and social nature.

Portland has six National Banks, with an aggregate capital of $3,150,000. They are the First National Bank, and Casco National Bank, each with a capital of $800,000; Canal National Bank, having a capital of $600,000; Merchants' National Bank and National Trader's Bank, each having a capital of $300,000 ; and the Cumberland National Bank, with a capital of $250,000. The Maine Savings Bank, in Port- land, on the 1st of November, 1880, held in deposits and profits, the sum of $3,181,195.45; and the Portland Savings Bank, at the same date, held $4,480,770.32.

Portland has three daily papers, all well sustained. The Argus -ancient and respectable, and always fresh, bright, readable and democratic ; the Press, a reliable Republican sheet, always elegant and honorable ; the Advertiser, the oldest daily paper in the city, but at present, the most concise ; Republican in politics, but independent in its views. The Portland Sunday Times, is a lively secular weekly, devoted largely to social matters. It is independent in politics. The Morning News is a spirited journal, devoted to reform. It is Greenback in politics, but generally independent in its views. Zion's Advocate, an organ of the Baptists, is an excellent denominational paper. The Christian Mirror, the organ of the Congregationalists in Maine, is ably edited, and wholly worthy of its patronage. The Portland Transcript, known to every Maine family, is unsurpassed in its field by any newspaper in the_country. The North-East, published monthly, is the organ of the Episcopal church in Maine. The Masonic Token, issued quarterly, by Stephen Berry, is devoted to masonry, and would consequently be very useful to every member of that order. The Helping Hand, a monthly, published by the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, is well adapted to a worthy purpose. Our Home and Fireside Magazine, published monthly and Saturday by H. Hal- lett & Co., is devoted almost wholly to stories. The People's Illus- trated Journal and The Illustrated Household Magazine, published monthly, by Geo. Stinson & Co., are of the same class and of equal rank. The Globe, published every Saturday, is devoted to local news. The Portland Price Current, issued every Saturday, by M. N. Rich, is a sine qua non to the merchants of the city and its neighborhood. The City Item is a lively little daily, devoted to news. It is Greenback in its politics. The Floral Monthly, issued by W. E. Morton & Co., is a very desirable publication to all cultivators of flowers.

In her public schools, Portland takes much pride; for with them she has not hesitated at the expense of the best instructions and super- vision which could be obtained. They are very carefully graded, and the standard of scholarship is high. The schoolhouses are generally not only handsome buildings, but their internal arrangement is well-

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planned for the health and comfort of the occupants. The number of schoolhouses belonging to the city is fourteen ; and the value of school property is $413,025. The value of estates in 1870 was $29,439,- 257. In 1880 it was $30,437,541. The rate of taxation in the latter year, was $25.50 on $1,000. The population in 1870 was 31,413. By the census of 1880 it was found to have increased to 33,810.

Pownal is situated in the south-eastern part of Cumberland County, and on its north-west adjoins Durham, in Androscoggin County. New Gloucester bounds it on the north-west, North Yar- mouth on the west, and its southern angle rests upon Yarmouth. The town has an area of about 18,000 acres. The surface is undulating, and the soil is generally fertile. Agriculture is the chief occupation. For many years past, the town has sent to the coast-cities large quan- tities of hay. Bradbury's Mountain is much the highest elevation of land in town, affording magnificent views inland and seaward. It was a station of the coast survey. The streams are the eastern branches of Royal's River. Two saw-mills and a grist-mill are the only manufac- tories in which water-power is used at present. Other manufactures are boots and shoes, carriages, harnesses, etc.

Pownal was formerly a part of Freeport, having been set off from that town and incorporated in 1808. Its early history will therefore be found in that of the parent town. At the meeting in 1807 to take the steps to form an independent town, the citizens chosen as a com- mittee to agree on a line of separation were, Edward Thompson, Leb- beus 'Tuttle and Jabez True. On the petition to the legislature for in- corporation occur the names of citizens Edmund Cleaves, Jacob Davis, Joseph Hutchins, Nathaniel Noyes, Benjamin A. Richardson, Edward Thompson, William Sawyer, and Benjamin Humphrey.

The town has a Congregational, a Free Baptist and a Methodist church. Pownal has eleven public schoolhouses, valued at $4,200. The valuation of estates in 1870 was $378,355. In 1880 it was $303,486. The rate of taxation in 1880 was one dollar and sixty cents on one hundred dollars. The population in 1870 was 981. In the census of 1880 it was 876.

Pownalboro included the present towns of Dresden, Wis- casset, Alna, and Perkins (Swan Island). Its plantation name was Frankfort; and Fort Shirley, situated within it, opposite the upper end of Swan Island, was sometimes called Fort Frankfort. This was the name of a town in Germany from which some of the settlers had come, and was doubtless adopted on their account. Pownalboro was incorporated in 1760, being named in honor of the Massachusetts gov- ernor at that date. It was at once made the shire town of Lincoln County, and thus remained for thirty-four years. Its first represen- tative to the General Court was Thomas Rice. Dresden (including Swan Island, now the town of Perkins) and Alna were set off in 1794, and the name was retained by the remainder of the former town, but was in 1802 changed to Wiscasset.

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Gazetteer of the state of Maine, Part 57

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