USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Augusta > Historical notes on Augusta, Maine > Part 2
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No. 99 Residence of Charles M. Harris.
Mr. Harris bought this house from the Parrott estate in 1954. It is shown on the 1838 map as the home of a Dr. Young. In 1867 it is listed as the residence of Thomas Smith, shipmaster. His widow lived there for many years, but by the turn of the century it was
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occupied by Arthur F. Parrott, son of Benjamin Parrott. Mr. Parrott was engaged in the grain business with his father and during World War One days he was a sugar broker. He married Lillian Moody, who came from Brooklyn, New York. Mrs. Parrott's father was a native of East Pittston, it is said, and as a young man he went to Brooklyn and made a fortune in the real estate business. At one time he maintained a large summer " cottage" in East Pittston near the center of the town. The building is still there, inhabited by a Russian refugee family. In addition Mr. Moody had a race track, it is said, where the East Pittston fairgrounds now are. Mrs. Parrott was interested in civic affairs and at one time was Trustee of the State Hospitals. Their son, Arthur Franklin Parrott, Jr., was brought up in this home and went to local schools and to Phillips Exeter where his father and James G. Blaine, Jr. attended. He was in the Air Force in the First World War after which he went to the Uni- versity of Maine. He subsequently left for New York, where he engaged in the real estate business until his death, a few years ago.
No. 103 Residence of G. Cony Weston.
This very old house is noticed on the 1838 map as the residence of Daniel Fairbanks, who was a trader, and is shown living here with his wife Elizabeth in 1850. He was born in Winthrop and died in Augusta in 1863, aged 53. Mrs. Fairbanks died in Augusta in 1889, aged 76. They had two sons, Charles, who died when he was 17, and Albert C., who died when he was 26, and also a daughter who lived 8 years. After the death of Mrs. Fairbanks the place was sold to Melvin Sawtelle, a lawyer, who was born in Sidney in 1873, graduated from Colby in 1895, admitted to the bar in 1899. For many years he practiced law in Augusta and was City Solicitor at one time. He was interested in civic affairs and was a trustee of the Lithgow Library and Reading Room. Later he moved to No. 72 Winthrop Street. Mr. Weston has occupied the house since 1917.
North Chestnut Street begins. . . .
No. 107 Maine State Baptist Headquarters.
Until recently this old mansion was the home of the late Justice Fisher of the Superior Court of Maine. The house appears on the 1838 map as the residence of H. W. Fuller, Jr. He was the son of Judge Henry W. Fuller who in 1818 purchased from Joseph North, Jr. a large tract of land extending from Winthrop Street north to
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Bridge Street, which was not laid out west of State Street and from State Street west to the top of "Burnt Hill". In 1820 Pleasant Street was laid out and Bridge Street west of State Street. Fuller laid out streets, ornamented them with trees, sold lots and assisted the pur- chasers with building dwellings. Summer Street was accepted in 1822, Elm and Winter Streets in 1824 and North Street in 1826. Henry W. Fuller, Jr. graduated from Bowdoin in 1828, studied law in his father's office, went to Tallahassee, Florida; returned to Augusta in 1832, practiced in Augusta until 1841 when he moved to Boston and was subsequently Clerk of the U. S. Circuit Court. The house was occupied by William Treby Johnson, Mayor of Augusta, in 1863, who was born in Madison in 1815. He served an apprenticeship as a printer in the Kennebec Journal in Augusta and the Eastern Argus in Portland. He was editor of the Bangor Democrat in 1838. In 1844 he became associated with Richard E. Rice, Augusta lawyer, established, it is said, for state printing and as a Democratic news- paper. From there he went to the Maine Farmer. He then went into politics and served as Clerk of the House of Representatives. During 1857-58 Johnson represented Augusta with James A. Bicknell and again with James G. Blaine, when Johnson was elected Speaker of the House. In 1860 he was made Cashier of the National Granite Bank of Augusta, a position he held until his death in 1881. After- wards the house was the home of Bradford Kimball who conducted a dry goods business at 149 Water Street. His daughter, Edith Blanche, married William Henry Fisher in 1893. He was born in Wisconsin in 1869 and was educated at Caribou High School, Albany Law School and Union University. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 at Houlton. He moved to Augusta in 1893 and became a member of Whitehouse and Fisher. He was City Solicitor, County Attorney for Kennebec from 1913 to 1919, Deputy Attorney General 1921-23 and later was appointed Justice of the Superior Court by Governor Baxter in the 1920's. His wife, Edith Blanche, was promi- nent in the D. A. R. and in the American Legion Auxiliary. They had a daughter, Marion, who married the late Leigh Flynt of this city, and a son, Kimball, who served in the United States Naval Reserve Force during World War One, died shortly after while a student at Bowdoin College.
No. 113 Apartment House.
This old residence was the home of Mark Nason in 1838. He was the son of Barthelomew Nason who was born in Berwick, Maine.
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Mark was born in 1793, married Olive Craig of Fayette in 1822. He was a trader in Augusta, removed to Fayette where he died in 1878. Subsequently the house was occupied by Lot M. Morrill, who came to Augusta in 1845 and practiced law with James W. Bradbury and Richard Rice. He was the son of Peaselee Morrill of Belgrade and a brother of Anson P. Morrill. Both brothers became governors of the state of Maine. Lot Morrill was a graduate of Waterville, now Colby College and first practiced in Readfield. Mr. Morrill began his political life when temperance and anti-slavery sentiments were working mischief with party organizations. Morrill was a Democrat, but both he and his brother were dissatisfied with the slavery sentiments of their party and eventually became Republicans. He was first elected governor of the state in 1857 and a great cele- bration was held to mark the election of the first Augusta man to become Governor. An inaugural ball was given at Meonian Hall and a banquet at the Stanley House. In the evening the novelty of an illuminated balloon, bearing the words "Governor Morrill", was sent up. He was governor for two years and when Hannibal Hamlin resigned his seat in the Senate to fill the office of Vice President, Morrill was elected to fill the vacancy. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected to the full term to expire in 1869. He seems to have fulfilled the duties of his Civil War time office with satisfac- tion, but he failed of renomination, being beaten by Hannibal Hamlin in party caucus by one vote. Afterwards he was chosen Secretary of the Treasury in 1876 during the administration of President Grant. He died in Augusta at the age of seventy years. He married Char- lotte Vance, daughter of William Vance, Readfield lawyer. They had four daughters. Mrs. Morrill was only 17 when she was married. She had just finished attending school in Boston. After her father died, Mr. Morrill was appointed her guardian and it was not long before business acquaintance ripened into love. With the enthusiasm of youth she took quite an interest in politics and became quite pro- ficient in the modus operandi of caucuses and elections. She lived in Washington during the administration of Abraham Lincoln and in a special article for the Boston Globe in 1904 she tells of her experiences. Growing out of the varying fortunes of politics she formed her likes and dislikes. Nowhere in the country could a person be found, who had such an intense dislike for James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House and defeated Presidential candidate. Though living in the same city and well known for her hospitality she would
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never allow Blaine to cross her threshold. Although a Republican, she did what she could to further the prospects of Grover Cleveland, Blaine's Democratic antagonist. She took keenly the defeat of her husband for U. S. Senator in the caucus of 1869. As previously stated he was beaten by one vote and she stated she knew the very vote, where the man lived and how much it cost to defeat her hus- band. In the same article she spoke of her admiration for Lincoln and at the time a framed photograph of the Great Emancipator hung in the library of her home. She spoke of her husband's career while Secretary of the Treasury and said that he never hired a relative for office. She further stated that when he took charge he fired 500 clerks, "who were drawing salaries, but not doing an hour's work ". Mrs. Morrill had strong friendly feelings for Senator Roscoe Conk- ling, who was an enemy of Blaine's, and frequently dined him in Washington and at her home in Augusta, once or twice. When President Grant came to Augusta in 1873 she entertained him and his party at dinner. She was a warm admirer of the General and also of President Arthur whom she thought ought to have been returned to the White House. After her death the home was oc- cupied by Congressman John R. Nelson with his large family includ- ing his son Charles, who also became Congressman from the Third District. John R. Nelson was born in China in 1874, graduated from Colby College and attended Maine Law School. He married Mar- garet H. Crosby and they had eight children. He was a law partner of Charles Andrews; later Tudor Gardiner joined the firm. He was Congressman for eight years. He was subsequently appointed Re- ceiver of the Augusta Trust Company, which became the Depositors Trust Company. His son, Charles, was Mayor of Augusta after the Second World War and Congressman thereafter for twelve years.
Prospect Street begins. . . .
No. 119 Apartment House.
This house was formerly the residence of Edward C. Gage, brother of William E. Gage. Mr. Gage was a business man on Water Street for many years and was President of H. H. Hamlen Company, harness manufacturers and dealers, 254 Water Street. Mr. and Mrs. Gage had one son, Elwyn C., and two daughters, Constance and Lucy. The house was built in 1896.
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No. 123 Congregational Parsonage.
This house was built by Lawrence Purinton of the Purinton Coal Company in the 1920's. He played football on Hebron Academy and University of Maine teams, was a veteran of the First World War and prominent in social circles. Until recently the house was the residence of Russell B. Spear, President of the Depositors Trust Company. It is now occupied by the Rev. Kenneth Brooks and his family.
High Street begins. . . .
No. 127 Roy Brown Residence.
This house was built at the turn of the century and for many years was the home of the late Roy Brown, letter carrier.
Granite Street begins. . . .
Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
This was the original "Burnt Hill " burying ground which was given by Judge North to the Congregational Church in 1802. Among the graves is the plot of General Henry Sewall, Revolutionary hero. In 1838 an old powder house is shown in this vicinity. It was in the highway at the corner of Winthrop and High Streets that the body of Captain James Purrinton, the famous homicide, was buried with the axe and razor with which he murdered his wife and six children. On the ninth day of July, 1806, Captain James Purrinton of Bow- doinham, who was living on the old Belgrade Road, said to be on the east side of the Fisher Dairy Farm, killed his wife and six children, wounded two others and then slashed his own throat with a razor. A coroner's jury was called and although it was said there was insanity in his family, nevertheless found him guilty of murder. Attended by great excitement, the next day a public funeral was held. A procession of pall bearers bearing the remains of the mother and children and the body of Purrinton in a cart followed. The procession started from Market Square down Water Street over the Kennebec Bridge and returned, then moved by the way of Bridge and State Streets to the so-called "Burnt Hill " cemetery where the bodies of the mother and children were buried. As in the case of the Sager hanging the streets and house tops were filled with thousands of people from all over the countryside. A story prevalent in the neighborhood of the crime was that the figure of a black cat with
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one gleaming yellow eye could be seen sitting on the limb of a tree which stood in front of the Purrinton farmhouse. It was said that it was especially visible on a bright moonlight night in wintertime. It was told that Purrinton tried to kill the cat with an axe, but only succeeded in gouging out an eye and long after the house was burned the ghost of the cat came looking for her former master.
Fuller's Observatory.
The Fuller Observatory stood upon a lofty height known as Fuller's Ledge beyond the end of Bridge Street. It was erected by Albert T. Fuller, a local grocer, in the spring of 1891 at a cost of $6,500. The height of the tower was 162 feet and the height of the hill was 381 feet, making a total of 543 feet above the river. It afforded a view five miles around. There were 12 flights of stairs and 215 steps and the general shape was that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was blown down in the high wind of the early morning of December 31, 1895 and wrecked into kindling wood. Several persons saw it fall. Parts of the base survived for years. It is said that the iron footing still remains.
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Winthrop Street - South Side
The houses on the south side of Winthrop Hill which reaches to State Street are on two distinct levels, one for the Elks Home and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Clubhouse, the other for the two apartment buildings and the office building formerly the First Baptist Church. There are driveways to the first level, by the second it is reached by stairs from the street and by Court Avenue.
The Winthrop Street crossing of the Maine Central Railroad is now guarded by automatic warning signals which were installed in 1956. Formerly a shack for the gate tender stood on the south side as one crossed the tracks. The last tenders were Arthur Doyon and Dan Michaud. Others before them were John White, Billy Routh and Arthur Dunlap. It is said by railroad men that there has never been a fatal accident at this crossing. It is interesting to note that on the 1838 map there is a street, called Dudley Street, which extended from Winthrop to Court Street, parallel to Water Street. North says the first locomotive entered the city on Monday, December 15, 1851 in a snow storm. "Stopping at the foot of Court Street, it announced its arrival by wild screams, such as locomotives are rarely permitted to utter; exultant and joyous ... which drowned out all other sounds." The Supreme Court was in session and when the locomotive commenced its cry Richard Vose was making an im- passioned plea to the jury, and although he raised his voice so he could be heard, Judge Rice suspended the case and "joined in the joyous laugh of the bar until it was over." This year, 1960, saw the suspension of passenger service on the Maine Central and now only freight trains use the tracks.
No. 10 Elk's Clubhouse.
The local lodge of the B. P. O. E. started in 1905 and the present clubhouse was dedicated August 2, 1916. The building stands on the site of an old house which was the residence of Horatio Bridge, a lawyer, in 1838. He was born in 1806, the son of Judge Bridge of Augusta. He graduated from Bowdoin in 1818, studied law and commenced practice in Augusta, but moved to Skowhegan where he
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practiced a while and then returned to Augusta. He was among those who proposed the Kennebec Dam, which was finished in 1835. Subsequently he was Purser in the Navy. He cruised the African Coast and wrote a book called " Journal of an African Cruiser " which was published under the editorship of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was his classmate at Bowdoin. At one time Hawthorne visited the Bridge family in Augusta, it is said. In 1875 this building was shown as the home of W. D. Kimball, a machinist. It is said to have been torn down.
No. 16 Veterans of Foreign Wars Clubhouse.
On this site there appears a building labeled Parker House in 1838, but it does not appear in 1852 or 1875. This Clubhouse was formerly the New England Telephone and Telegraph Exchange and first occupied December 17, 1904. Additions were made to the building which served until the new exchange on State Street was completed in 1955. The first local telephone company was called "Dirigo Telephone Company" and an exchange serving 45 sub- scribers was opened in Room Three of the old Maine Central Depot which stood on Commercial Street back of Hotel North, in 1880, just eighty years ago. A directory listed on a single card was issued in 1881 and showed 57 subscribers in Augusta and Hallowell, the ma- jority of which were business and professional addresses. In 1894 the company was merged with the New England Telephone and Tele- graph Company. Wall telephones were used for many years and for some years numbers were not used. The subscriber pushed in a small button at the side of the instrument and turned a crank and told "Central " whom they wanted.
No. 26 Apartment House.
This double house has long been the home of well known Augusta families. In 1875 it is shown as the home of E. H. Sawyer, ship's carpenter. In 1879 the name of Mrs. E. H. Sawyer on the east side and that of Lendall Titcomb on the west. Lendall Titcomb, then a young lawyer who later lived on Summer Street, was the son of Samuel Titcomb who lived at No. 24 Pleasant Street. In the 1880's Josiah Bangs is shown occupying the house. He and his brother Algernon carried on a window manufacturing business at 31 Maple Street which burned and was not rebuilt. George Bangs, his son, lived there for many years. He married Gertrude Stone, sister of "Jimmy "
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Stone, famous in early Chizzle Wizzle days. His daughter Dorothy married Don Brennan, Augusta's contribution to big league baseball. Mr. and Mrs. George Bangs had two sons, Milton and Henry, and a daughter, Hilda, now Mrs. C. M. Rice. Mr. Bangs was a book- keeper for the Augusta Lumber Company and was a member of the City Government in 1912-13. He left Augusta, it is said, to become the first resident auditor of the University of Maine at Orono. It is of interest to note that the first Chizzle Whizzle Fair was held by the Cony High School in 1892 for the purpose of equip- ping the football team, which although a strong one, having defeated Bangor, Portland and Colby College, needed additional equipment. It is said that the name was taken from the school yell. A dentist, Dr. Walter Thomas, who lived with the Bangs family for years, was a bachelor and fond of sports. In the summer of about 1910 he was chosen to greet the famous stunt flyer, Lincoln Beachey, who was to put on an exhibition in the old Trotting Park near the State House, which is now a ball park. The trotting park contained the standard half-mile track and a grandstand with roof and stables. The grandstand was situated in the southwest corner and faced the east. It is said that a trotting park in that particular location had been maintained since 1858. During the first part of the present century Elden W. Hanks promoted the park and built the grand- stand and stables. However, the project was too far ahead of its time (witness Scarboro Downs) and with the coming of the auto- mobile and motor boat it faded away about 1914. Returning to the Beachey visit, his plane, said to have been a Curtiss Pusher - a light bamboo contraption with engine and propellor back of the pilot, stood in the middle of the track, ready to take off. Dr. Thomas appeared with Beachey, who was attired in the business suit of the day, took off his sailor straw hat and handed it to the doctor who gave him a cap. Beachey took the cap, put it on with the visor in back, seated himself in the plane, gave the signal to his mechanic and took off, using the track for a runway. Making a climb, after some turns he disappeared into the clouds above the State House. The breathless crowd waited until he reappeared headed for the track. As he circled about for a landing he "buzzed " the roof of the grandstand, causing several boys who were there to get a better view, to lay flat. Happily there were no casualties and Beachey landed on the track, got out, retrieved his hat from the waiting doctor and retired amid the cheers of the crowd.
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On the 1838 map this house is marked "Weston". Captain Nathan Weston, the ancestor of the Westons in this area, was born in 1740 and came to Hallowell in 1778 and became a trader. Ac- cording to North he purchased a house of Colonel Ezekiel Porter which he had erected on Winthrop Street near the Baptist Church. He lived there until his death in 1832.
No. 30 Apartment House.
This building is shown as the office of Dr. L. J. Crooker on the 1879 map. Dr. Crooker was a well known physician and surgeon in Augusta for many years. He was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia in 1837. He early evidenced an aptitude for surgery and when he was 18 removed a tumor from the axillary cavity of a patient, an operation which the local surgeons had refused to undertake. He opened an irregular practice in Belgrade and Sidney and was suc- cessful in many difficult operations. He was mechanically minded and made his instruments on the blacksmith's forge. He invented the Crooker Spiral Ligator. He attended Harvard Medical School and in 1870 he graduated from Dartmouth. He was also interested in the promotion of the early Ocean Point summer colony. An ad- vertisement in the Kennebec Journal of August 7, 1879 shows the professional card of Crooker and Hill, residence and office, Winthrop Street one door east of the Baptist Church. Dr. J. F. Hill is given as Dr. Crooker's partner. He later married the daughter of Peleg O. Vickery, gave up his practice and entered into partnership with Vickery in 1882. John Fremont Hill was born in Eliot in 1855, graduated from Bowdoin Medical School in 1878. He entered politics in 1889 and became Governor of Maine in 1901. He built the large mansion at the corner of State and Green Streets, now used by the Oblate Fathers as a Retreat. Afterwards Melville Smith, a Civil War veteran who had a piano store on Water Street, occupied the house. His son, the late Ralph Smith, moved the business to Hallo- well. Melville Smith wore a goatee and was habitually dressed in a long black coat. He had as a hobby, astronomy and on the front lawn of his residence there was a heavy stand for the telescope, which when not in use was carefully put away.
No. 32 Business Building.
This building is the first story of the First Baptist Church, re- built in 1868. The church building was similar in appearance to the
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Methodist Church on Green Street. It had a large tower with four clock dials which served as the town clock for many years. In 1853 under the leadership of the Reverend O. B. Cheney, the old Freewill Baptist Church, now an apartment house, was built at 43 State Street. In 1907 the First Baptist and Freewill Churches merged and built the present Penney Memorial Baptist Church on Grove Street. The old First Baptist building was destroyed by fire July 5, 1937 and only the first story remained standing. This was repaired and siding used to cover the walls, but the original clap- boards, painted gray, can be seen on the eastern side and back of the building.
Perham begins. . . .
Registry of Deeds.
The office of the Register of Deeds can be reached by an en- trance on the Winthrop Street side of the Court House. This office is located in the basement where only a few years ago the stocks and scaffold of ancient days were stored. It is understood that they are now in Fort Western. The office is very modern, brilliantly lighted and affords every convenience for the county deeds, maps and speedy copying devices.
State Street crosses. . . .
No. 48 State Street - Offices.
Crossing State Street there is shown a building on this site with the name E. Packard. Subsequently the house is shown as the house of N. W. Cole, agent of the Kennebec Mills, in the 1867 Directory and on the 1875 map it is noted as the residence of Colonel H. A. DeWitt who rebuilt the Kennebec Dam in 1870. Colonel DeWitt afterwards was with J. Manchester Haynes in the Haynes and DeWitt Ice Company. In 1884 the address appears to be that of Charles S. Downing, pianos, organs and sewing machines, store at 151 Water Street. Afterwards the building was remodeled into a small hotel, called the Winthrop House, with entrance on 90 State Street. In the 1906 directory the hotel is advertised as being " delightfully situated in the residential section of the city, Joseph B. McClean, Proprietor. Private dining rooms available." The hotel is said to have been the property of P. O. Vickery. Subsequently this address was that of the Fuller Holway Company for a number of years.
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No. 50 Pioneer House.
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