USA > Maine > Aroostook County > History of Aroostook. vol. I > Part 10
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After the close of the war, new settlers began to come to the town and new business enterprises were established. Pro- jects for a direct line of railroad, to connect with the European and North American Railway at Mattawamkeag, now began to be agitated and it was ardently hoped at the time that the road would be built, and the Aroostook Valley thus be directly con- nected with the outside world. These hopes, however, were doomed to be long unrealized, but the prospect is now very en- couraging that a direct line of railroad from Bangor will be completed in the near future.
In 1874, the first starch factory was built at Presque Isle by Mr. Wheeler of New Hampshire. The factory was located near the grist mill and was run by water power. The farmers in the vicinity contracted to plant a satisfactory number of acres for a term of five years and to deliver the potatoes at the factory for twenty-five cents per bushel. The business was a remunerative one for the proprietors of the factory, as starch brought a high price that year, and the profit on the first year's output paid the entire cost of the plant. It was also a profitable business for the farmers and has so continued until the present day.
The next year the Aroostook Starch Co., a stock company, at the head of which was the enterprising firm of Johnson & Phair, of Presque Isle, built the Maysville factory at the Aroos- took Bridge and large quantities of potatoes were raised for the two factories. The business has continued to increase until now Hon. Thos. H. Phair owns and operates seven factories in this and adjoining towns, at which in some years he manufac- tures nearly 1500 tons of starch. This industry gave a new im- petus to business and not only largely benefited the farmers, but aided to a great extent in building up the business of this prosperous and growing villgae.
Early in 1881 the project of railroad communication by means of connection with the New Brunswick Railway began to be agitated. A narrow guage spur had already been run up along the Aroostook River as far as Caribou and it was proposed to continue this branch to Presque Isle.
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Previous to this time the North Star, which was started at Caribou in 1872 by W. T. Sleeper and Son, had been purchased by F. G. Parker & Co. and moved to Presque Isle. This paper was ably edited by Dr. F. G. Parker, who entered heartily into the project of the proposed extension and aided much in awak- ening public sentiment in its favor. A proposition was made by the New Brunswick Railway Co. to extend their line to Presque Isle upon payment of $15,000 by the towns interested, and also a guaranty of the right of way.
A railroad mass meeting of the citizens of the towns to be immediately benefited was held at Presque Isle April 2, 1881, at which the matter was fully discussed, with the general feeling in favor of accepting the proposition. The result of the meet- ing was that on April 8, 1881, the town of Presque Isle voted $10,000 and on the following day Maysville voted $5,000 in aid of the extension. Individuals in adjoining towns subscribed to- wards the expense of the right of way.
On the 28th of May, 1881, Messrs. Isaac and E. R. Burpee, Directors of the N. B. Railway, accompanied by F. A. Wilson, Esq., of Bangor, as attorney for the Company, and Hon. Llewel- lyn Powers of Houlton, as attorney for the towns, came to Presque Isle, where the contract was completed. Work was at once commenced and was energetically pushed, and on Thurs- day, Dec. 1, 1881, the first train steamed into Presque Isle. The Messrs. Burpee and other gentlemen interested in the road were upon the train and were accorded a most hearty and enthus- iastic reception by the large concourse of citizens assembled at the station. On Jan. 8, 1882, the telegraph line was completed to the town, and Presque Isle was connected with the outer world both by rail and wire. A few years later the guage was widened and the road bed improved and placed in excellent condition and well equipped for the transportation of passen- gers and freight.
New and expensive buildings were also erected at the sta- tion in Presque Isle and every effort has been made to render the road a first class line. The New Brunswick Railway has since been sold to the Canadian Pacific Co. and is now a part of that system.
As was said at the commencement of this article the north half of the present town of Presque Isle was originally Town- ship G, Range Two, afterwards the town of Maysville. This is naturally one of the very best towns in Aroostook County for agricultural purposes and the entire township is now covered
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with excellent farms. The beautiful Aroostook River enters this township from Washburn some two miles from its north- west corner and flowing in a southeasterly direction, approaches within about a mile of the south line of the township. It then. sweeps to the north and runs in that direction entirely across the town, leaving it through its north line somme two m.les west of the northeast corner of the town. The whole course of the river in the old town of Maysville is nearly twelve miles and, in ad- dition to its picturesque beauty, it sweeps through as fertile a tract of land as can be found anywhere in New England.
Upon the banks of the river in this township the first set- tlement was made on the Aroostook River. As early as 1820, Lewis and Charles Johnson and a Mr. McCrea came up the river from New Brunswick and made a settlement a short dis- tance below the mouth of the Presque Isle Stream. The smoke of their clearing, as if curled gracefully upward above the lofty forest trees, was seen by no other settler in all this region. All around them for many miles in every direction was the mag- nificent forest in which the deer, the moose and the caribou roamed at will and through which the beautiful river flowed placidly along, unvexed by the busy millwheel and undisturbed by the industries of civilization.
They were soon afterwards joined by other settlers and as early as 1825, there were seven families living upon the town- ship. Previous to that time the wild lands of the State were owned in common by the States of Massachusetts and Maine, and in 1825 the lands upon the Aroostook River and southward were surveyed into townships and divided, each State taking alternate townships.
Mr. Joseph Norris, who made the survey in that year, says in his report that he found Mr. Thomas W. Beckwith residing with his family on Township Letter G., Range Two, and that he was informed by him that there were six other families living on the township, "two by the name of Bradley, a Mr. Arnold and the names of the other three I do not recollect. I did not see or hear of any other families residing on any of the other un- divided townships, although a number of beginnings had been made the past season with that view."
Among the earlier settlers, besides those already men- tioned, were the following who received titles to their lots un- der the provisions of the treaty of 1842, they having been in possession "for more than six years before the date of the treaty aforesaid," (viz.) : Isaac Morris, John Nichols, James
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Nichols, Andrew Scott, William Pyle, Isaac Thomas, Olive Fen- lason, Hector Sutherland, Daniel and William Chandler, John Rafford, Jonathan E. and Ferdinand Armstrong, Thomas Fields, Benjamin Weeks, William McDougal, John Benjamin, Susanna Hooper (widow of Nehemiah Hooper), Thos. J. Hobart, Josiah Towle, Solomon Parsons, Geo. W. Towle, Thomas W. Navay, Ebenezer Oakes, Daniel Hopkins, Amos Heald, James F. Cur- rier's heirs, Peter Bull.
The above list is taken from the report of the commission- ers who visited the township to determine the titles of settlers under the treaty of 1842. In their report they also mention Lewis Johnstone, Thomas W. Beckwith and John W. Beckwith and Lewis and Henry Bradley. Mr. Cyrus Pomroy was another early settler who made a farm on the north side of the Aroos- took, a mile below the mouth of Presque Isle Stream.
Messrs. Josiah and Geo. W. Towle and Solomon Parsons, to whom were granted two hundred acres by these commission- ers, were a firm of lumbermen who made a farm on a beautiful intervale a short distance above the mouth of Presque Isle Stream and on this farm raised hay and grain for their lumber operations. The farm is now owned and occupied by Mr. Geo. A. Parsons, a son of Solomon Parsons, and is one of the finest farms in the town.
As we have said before, all the earlier settlers on the town- ship came up the Aroostook River from New Brunswick and settled along the river bank.
The first settler who came to Letter G "by land" and set- tled on the higher land away from the river was Capt. Henry Rolfe. Capt. Rolfe was a veteran of the Aroostook War and was one of the party who under Capt. Alvin Nye occupied the position at the mouth of Fish River in 1839. In June, 1840, he settled upon the lot upon which he now resides, which is on the road from Presque Isle to Caribou, about half a mile north of the postoffice at Maysville Centre and some two miles north of the Aroostook Bridge.
When Capt. Rolfe took up his lot it was in the midst of a dense wilderness, with no road in all this region and nothing but a spotted line to guide him on his way to the river. The town then belonged to the State of Massachusetts and the few settlers along the river were still living in their log houses and did a large part of their trading in New Brunswick. The cus- tom was to cut the timber which grew upon the bank of the river and could be easily rolled into the water, drive it to Fred-
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ericton and boat back the supplies purchased with the proceeds of its sale. Capt. Rolfe used to carry his wheat on his back two miles through the woods to the mouth of Presque Isle Stream and boat it up the stream to Fairbanks' mill, where it was ground and then boated down the stream to the Aroostool: River and carried on his back to his home in the forest. His first clearing consisted of sixteen acres, one acre of which was planted to potatoes, one acre sown to wheat and the remainder to oats. At that time oats sold for 50 cts, potatoes 50 cts, buckwheat $1.00 and wheat $2.00 per bushel. Hay brought $20 per ton and was purchased by the lumber operators.
Capt. Rolfe bought his first bill of supplies of Dennis Fair- banks, paying $50 per barrel for pork, $20 for flour, $1.00 per pound for tea and $1.00 per gallon for molasses. As he used neither rum nor tobacco he does not give the price of those arti- cles.
The first frame schoolhouse in Letter G was built by sub- scription in 1844, after the road was cut through from the Aroostook to the St. John Rivers, and was placed on the lot where the Maysville burying ground is now located. Previous to that time, however, a private school, the first in the town, was taught in a log house near the river by Miss Susan M. Hooper, afterwards Mrs. Daniel Duff.
Mr. John Allen came to the town in 1840 and made a clear- ing on the farm now owned by Mr. Samuel C. Greenlaw, and moved his family to their forest home in 1841. Mr. Allen ob- tained possession of a large number of lots in the town, among them being two treaty lots on the Aroostook River which were awarded to him in the report of the commissioners. Mr. Allen was for many years a prominent citizen of the town and amassed a considerable amount of wealth. He died a few years since at the home of his son in Riverside, Cal., and his remains were brought to his old home for interment.
In 1843 Mr. Augustus Allen, a son of John Allen, took up the lot which is now a part of the extensive farm of Mr. Colum- bus Hayford and during the same year Mr. John Welts com- menced a clearing on the farm now owned by Mr. Frank B. Smith. After the State of Maine acquired possession of the town it was lotted for settlement and the lots were sold to actual settlers for the nominal price of fifty cents per acre, to be paid in road labor. Along the road from Presque Isle to Caribou the lots were soon taken up and the wilderness gave place to cul- tivated farms. Roads were also opened in other portions of the
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town and settlers came in and established their homes upon this fertile township.
In 1858 a covered bridge was built across the Aroostook River a short distance below the mouth of Presque Isle Stream. This bridge was nearly four hundred feet long and cost $6,000. The State appropriated $3000 toward its construction and the balance was raised by individual subscriptions.
The town of Maysville was incorporated April 4, 1859, and in 1860 the population was 665. It increased to 758 in 1870 and 1141 in 1880. Maysville was wholly an agricultural town and though a town house and schoolhouse was built at a point on the main mail route from Presque Isle to Caribou, yet there was no village in the town, nor was there at the time of its in- corporation any store or factory of any kind within its limits. Its growth in wealth and population was due wholly to its fer- tile soil. By the State valuation of 1876 the average amount of property to every person in the town was about $200, which consisted almost wholly in farm property.
Among the enterprising farmers who came to the town in the years soon after its incorporation were E. E. Parkhurst, George A. Parsons, Columbus Hayford, C. P. Ferguson, Simeou Smith, T. M. Richardson, Silas Southard, Thomas Harris and others who helped give to Maysville an enviable reputation as an exceptionally fine agricultural town.
Mr. Daniel Duff was an early settler and a man well known and highly respected. Mr. Duff's farm adjoined Capt. Rolfe's on the south and his house was well known for its hos- pitable entertainment in the early days of the town. Mr. Duff was killed many years ago by a falling tree. Mr. Samuel C. Bennett is another of the early settlers. His farm is on the north side of the Aroostook River, his house being the first on the road after crossing the bridge. Mr. Bennett has been a much re- spected citizen of the town for many years and is still engaged in the cultivation of his fine farm, though somewhat advanced in years.
In the winter of 1882 petitions were presented to the Legis- lature asking for the annexation of the towns of Presque Isle and Maysville. The business of the town of Maysville was al- most entirely transacted at Presque Isle village and the union of the two towns was a most natural one. The necessary legis- lation was secured and in March, 1883, the first annual meeting of the consolidated towns was held.
A postoffice had been established in 1877 at Maysville Cen-
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tre, three miles from Presque Isle village on the Caribou road, with Mr. Edward Wiggin as postmaster. The name of this postoffice has not been changed and still bears the name of Maysville Centre, though now in the town of Presque Isle. By this annexation the town of Presque Isle now extends from West- field on the south to Caribou on the north, a distance of twelve miles. It is bounded on the west by a portion of Chapman Plantation, the town of Mapleton and a portion of Washburn, and on the east by the town of Easton and the south half of Fort Fairfield.
On the morning of the first day of May, 1884, the entire business portion of the village was consumed by fire. The fire broke out in the early morning in the second story of Johnson & Phair's large store on the corner of Main and Fort Streets, and, as there was a strong wind blowing and the means of ex- tinguishing were wholly inadequate, it soon spread until it en- veloped the entire business part of the town and as people came in from the farming districts in the morning they beheld only a heap of smouldering ashes where the night before had stood a busy and thriving village. The citizens soon rallied from the shock of the great disaster and, before the ashes were fairly cold, temporary places of business were erected and trade was again resumed. The insurance companies were most liberal and the losses were soon adjusted in a generous manner and the citizens at once, with a cheerful courage, commenced the work of re- building. In a remarkably short time every vestige of the fire was removed, better buildings were erected, the streets were much improved and soon everyone came to feel that on the whole the fire was a blessing to the village.
In the spring of 1885 the town suffered from another disas- ter, the covered bridge across the Aroostook River being car- ried away by an ice freshet. The town immediately voted to rebuild, and one of the best bridges in the County was built during the summer, at a cost of about $10,000.
During all these years the town had been making steady im- provement in its social, religious and educational privileges. The first meeting house built in the town was the Congregation- al Church building, which was commenced in 1863. Since that time the number of church edifices have increased until there are now seven handsome and commodious churches in the town and each denomination is comfortably provided for.
As the town became more thickly settled, new school houses were built and the present Academy building was erect-
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ed to supply the place of the old house which was destroyed by the fire of 1860. The trustees of the Academy had a fund from the State, which in 1883 amounted to about $5,000. In the spring of 1883, by a vote of the trustees, this fund was turned over to Bishop Neely to aid in the establishment of a perman- ent school of a high grade. Satisfactory arrangements were made and the following year the pleasant and commodious build- ings of St. John's Seminary were erected and the school was opened in September 1884, with about eighty pupils. In 1888 the town voted to pay the tuition of the high school pupils at the Seminary and appropriated $1000 for that purpose, to which the State added $250 under the Free High School Act. A con- tract was made with the school and upwards of ninety scholars were sent as town pupils. This arrangement has been continued to the present time (1892) and for the past two years the pupils sent by the town have numbered over one hundred. The school is a most excellent one and in it pupils are fitted to enter any college in the land.
There are in the village three graded schools, primary, in- termediate and grammar, and the number of pupils has increased to such an extent that additional room must soon be provided.
There the twenty one suburban schools in the town, all of which are now supplied with good schoolhouses.
After the annexation of Maysville, the town plan was adopt- ed and the schools were for nine years under the supervision of Mr. Edward Wiggin, during which time eight new schoolhouses were built and the others thoroughly repaired.
The year 1887 was a busy one in Presque Isle village. Soon after the fire of 1883, enterprising citizens, recognizing the need of more adequate protection, agitated the project of introducing a system of waterworks. A charter was obtained and the Presque Isle Water Company was organized in April, 1887. Contracts were made and the work of construction was immedi- ately commenced. The supply was obtained from a clear spring brook, the dam being built on the high ground about a mile southeast of the village. The reservoir has a capacity of 25,000 gallons and is called Mantle Lake, from the name of the con- tractor. The elevation of the dam above Main Street is about one hundred feet, giving ample pressure for extinguishing fires in all portions of the village. To guard against emergencies, a pumping station was built near the railroad station and provided with a Worthington pump, with quick steaming boiler. The cost of the works was $30,000. Thus the village is supplied with
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most excellent water, the analysis of the Secretary of the State Board of Health placing it among the purest. A well organized fire company followed the completion of the water works and today Presque Isle is as well protected from fire as any village in the State.
During the same year an electric light plant was estab- lished, with the Edison incandescent system, and the lights were turned on in December, 1887. A sufficient number of street lights were provided and the village is now lighted at the ex- pense of the town.
The fine Bank block was also erected the same summer by the stockholders and C. F. A. Johnson Esq. It is a handsome brick building costing about $15,000.
Hon. Joseph B. Hall, who, as we have said, discontinued the publication of the Aroostook Herald in 1862 and removed to Portland, returned to Presque Isle in 1884 and again started the Herald. In the meantime the North Star, which had been so ably edited by the lamented Dr. Parker, had been sold to Mr. George H. Collins, and Presque Isle now had two live newspa- pers, each doing its best for the advancement of the interests of the town and County. Both papers heartily advocated the build- ing of the Northern Maine railroad, as Mr. Hall during his for- mer residence in Presque Isle had ever worked for the building of a direct line to Aroostook.
The history of the Northern Maine R. R. enterprise as well as the other projects for a direct route to the County will be found in the chapter on the railroad projects of Aroostook.
The First National Bank of Presque Isle was opened for business on January 2, 1888, with a capital of $50,000, and is doing a safe and prosperous business. Its president, Mr. James W. Bolton, is one of the most reliable business men of the town and the directors are all men of business capacity and integrity.
Soon after the completion of the bank building, Mr. C. F. A. Johnson, who who had long been one of the principal business men of Presque Isle, decided to remove to the West, and there- fore sold his half of the building to Mr. George H. Collins, editor of the North Star, and that paper was moved to the most comfortable quarters of any newspaper in Maine.
Hon. Joseph B. Hall, editor of the Herald, died at Presque Isle on July 5th, 1889. He had labored long and devotedly to obtain direct railroad communication for Aroostook, but was not permitted to live to see the fulfillment of his desire. Mr. Hall was Secretary of State for three years, 1860, '61 and '62
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and during his subsequent absence from the State he edited a number of newspapers in the West. He was faithfully devoted to the interests of Aroostook and labored untiringly for their ad- vancement. After Mr. Hall's death the Herald was purchased by Mr. F. S. Bickford, now associate editor of the Brunswick Telegraph. He retained it, however, but a short time, and then sold it to Mr. Collins, who consolidated the two papers, and his paper is now published under the name of The Star-Herald.
In the winter of 1890, a charter was obtained for the Mer- chants' Trust and Banking Company of Presque Isle and the company was organized with a capital of $50,000. During the summer of 1891, a handsome building was erected and fitted with every convenience for transacting the business, and in January, 1892, the new bank opened for business. Col. C. P. Allen, the first president of the Presque Isle National Bank, is president of the compnay and the directors are all men of care- ful business habits.
A number of other fine buildings were erected in the village in the summer of 1891, among them being the extensive block built by Mr. J. W. Bolton on the corner of Main and Fort Streets and the handsome office of Hon. T. H. Phair, opposite the Bank.
Presque Isle is well supplied with hotel accommodations. The Phair Hotel, kept by Mr. James H. Phair, is one of the most comfortable and homelike hostelries to be found anywhere in the country and offers superior inducements to those wishing a pleasant home in a healthy climate during the summer months.
The Presque Isle Hotel, a fine three-story building on the site of the first hotel ever erected in the town, is also a first- class house in every respect and its landlord, Mr. Geo. F. Whit- ney, is well and favorably known to the traveling public.
The Brooklyn House across the bridge is also a well kept hotel and is well patronized.
The village of Presque Isle is now one of the most enter- prising and thriving villages in the State. Its business men are energetic and public spirited and are keenly alive to the best interests of the town.
After the consolidation of the North Star and Aroostook Herald, a new newspaper enterprise was started at Presque Isle. No Democratic paper was at that time published in the County. A stock company was organized and the Aroostook Democrat was started in the advocacy of the principles of that party as well as the general interests of the town and County. The pa-
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per is now upon its second year and seems to have secured a sure foothold.
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