USA > Maine > Oxford County > Bethel > History of Bethel : formerly Sudbury, Canada, Oxford County, Maine, 1768-1890, with a brief sketch of Hanover and family statistics > Part 28
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At a meeting of the committee held at Richard A. Frye's office, July 15, they perfected their organization by the election of Nathan- iel T. True, chairman, and Richard A. Frye, secretary. They voted to add ten members to their number to aid them, as follows : John D. Hastings and Elias S. Bartlett for the east part of the town ; Israel G. Kimball and Augustus M. Carter for the middle part of the town ; Samuel B. Twitchell and Moses A. Mason for the north side of the river ; Elbridge G. Wheeler, Gilman P. Bean and David M. Grover for the west part of the town, and Major Gideon A. Hastings for Bethel Hill. David F. Brown, Moses T. Cross and Robert A. Chapman were chosen a committee to select a place for holding the centennial meeting.
At a meeting of the committee held July 18, it was voted to ex- tend an invitation to Nathaniel T. True, M. D., to deliver the historical address at the Centennial Celebration. It was decided that the dinner should be a basket picnic, and that such table accommodations be procured for each school district as may be re- quired. Messrs. Brown, Wheeler and Kimball were chosen a com- mittee to appoint a person in each school district to see to the furnishing of the tables, and to have each district represented in the procession. They appointed in School District No, 2, Lorenzo Smith ; 3, John M. Philbrook ; 4, David Garland ; 5, Scott Wight ; 6, Wm. H. Goddard ; 7, Alonzo Howe ; 8, Charles M. Kimball ; 9, Hiram H. Bean ; 10, John S. Swan, 2d; 11, Timothy C. Carter ; 12, Wm. Farwell ; 13, Samuel S. Stanley ; 14, Abial Chandler ; 15,
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C. I. Kimball and Newton Grover; 16, Daniel W. Towne; 17, Wm. L. Bean ; 18, Milton Holt; 21, Jacob A. Chase ; 22, Gilman L. Blake and Ira Cushman ; 23, Cyrus Wormell ; 24, Abial Lyon ; 25, Albert W. Grover; 26, David T. Foster ; 27, John F. Hap- good ; 28, Albert Whitman ; 29, Gilbert Chapman ; 30, Oliver H. Mason and Hiram Twitchell. Messrs. T. C. Carter, Robert A. Chapman and Hiram H. Bean were chosen a committee on finance ; Major Gideon A. Hastings, Marshal of the day ; Major Abernethy Grover, President of the day, and the following gentlemen, Vice Presidents : Hon. Elias M. Carter, Mighill Mason, Esq., Dea. Leonard Grover, Charles R. Locke, Esq., and Eliphaz C. Bean, Esq. ; Prof. Henry L. Chapman of Bowdoin College, a native of Bethel, was chosen Poet ; Rev. David Garland, Chaplain ; Hon. Enochi Foster, Jr., Toast Master.
Wednesday, August 26, 1874, was ushered in by a delightful day. Bells were rung at sunrise, and almost before the villagers had finished their breakfast, carriages began to arrive loaded with men, women and children. Many of the private residences throughout the village were gaily trimmed with evergreens and other decora- tions. A large national flag floated across the street between the Bethel Hcuse and the residence of Major Gideon A. Hastings. The procession began to form at 10 A. M., under the direction of Major Gideon A. Hastings, Chief Marshal, the right of the line in front of the residence of Richard A. Frye, Esq., on Broad street, extending across the common and down Church street. The pro- cession countermarched down Broad street to the common. On entering the grove through an arch inscribed "1774, Bethel, 1874," there were arranged on the right, tables to accommodate four thou- sand people, and on the left, seats and conveniences for as many more.
The seats being filled, the President of the day, Hon. Abernethy Grover, made the address of welcome.
Fellow Citizens :
To-day we have met to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of this good old town of Bethel. We bid a cordial and hearty welcome to every son and daughter of Bethel, every one ever a resident among us, or who ever thought of coming, we bid you welcome. Some of the children of the eighteenth century are still left with us to-day. It is nearly one hundred years since their fathers and mothers toiled through the woods, guided only by marked trees-came on snow shoes-with their all on hand-sleds or on horseback, (a luxury) to make homes in the wilderness. They and their children have reared noble families, many representatives of whom have gone out from the old nest, settled in all parts of our country, and to-day the good influence of our good old town is felt in every portion of the Union. Our citizens have filled offices of trust and honor everywhere, and no Bethel boy has brought any- thing but an honored name to his good old native town. We are proud of our sons and daughters. We have now killed the fatted
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calf and bid them all a free and hearty welcome home. Rev. David Garland offered prayer, and then the historical address was delivered by Dr. Nathaniel T. True, as follows :*
Mr. President, Native-born Citizens, Adopted Citizens and Friends :
One hundred years is the involuntary exclamation of everyone who contemplates the scenes connected with a centennial celebra- tion. A crowd of thoughts rushes upon the mind as one reviews the history of our world from the birth of this town to the present occa- sion. Time with his busy fingers has placed on record the names of more than three thousand million human beings who have lived and died during that period. Kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen. A republic whose birth was almost co-incident with that of the town whose centennial we this day celebrate, has been founded on these western shores, containing 40,000,000 souls. The science of chemistry had its birth one century ago this very month. The steamboat, the railroad and the telegraph have been invented and found their way to the four quarters of the earth. Scientific men of renown, poets, orators, statesmen, warriors and kings have been born, fulfilled their career and died. Men are still living who were born before all these things transpired. It is only one of the forty centuries of recorded history, but one of the most important in the annals of time. This beautiful town has been changed from the dark and dense forest to the open fields, beautiful landscapes, and the thrifty homes of an industrious, intelligent and virtuous people.
We welcome to our celebration to-day, the sons and daughters who still live on the paternal spot; we welcome those who have wandered away, but who cannot easily forget the homes of their earlier years, and have returned to celebrate the day with us.
One hundred years ago little was known of the Androscoggin river above Rumford Falls. The earliest map in which I can find it laid down is by Charlevoix in 1744. He simply gives the general direction of the river as coming from a nameless lake.
In 1745 a party made a survey a few miles above Rumford Falls. I find no record of any exploration farther up the river till reaching Shelburne, N. H., which had received a charter from the crown as early as 1668, though it was not surveyed till 1771.
The Indian name of what is now Bethel is lost. The only Indian name remaining within the limits of the town is that of Son,o, applied to a pond on the extreme south border of the town. It signifies "the source," or "the discharging place" of one body of water into another, and is the principal source of the Presumpscot river. The latter meaning applies to Songo river, which discharges the waters of Long Pond, in Bridgton, into Sebago Lake.
On the banks of the Androscoggin, about one mile above the bridge, and directly in front of the dwelling house of the late Tim- othy Chapman, Esq., there is an elevation of intervale consisting of three or four acres. It is a lovely spot. Here was an Indian
*Dr. True's account of the Bethel churches and of some other matters are omitted, as it would only be repetition to insert them here.
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village. How long it had been inhabited is not known. It is prob- able that they had not occupied the spot since about the year 1750. They had cleared about ten acres of the intervale for a corn field. Pine trees measuring eighteen inches in diameter had grown up in some places when occupied by the first settlers ; the rest was cov- ered with bushes. Corn hills were everywhere visible among the trees.
On clearing the land, about twenty cellars were discovered, which had probably been used as a deposit for their corn. A dozen or more gun barrels were found, together with brass kettles, axes, knives, glass bottles, arrows and iron hoes, the latter of which were used by the settlers for several years afterwards, while the gun bar- rels were wrought into fire shovel handles by Fenno, the blacksmith. On one occasion he discharged the contents of a barrel into his- work-bench while heating it in his forge.
A single skeleton was discovered wrapped in birch bark. It is. said that they generally carried their dead to Canton Point for burial. Probably the settlement contained one or two hundred persons.
A mile and a half below the bridge, near the Narrows, is Powow Point. Here they had a clearing of three-fourths of an acre, which seems to have been a place of rendezvous for hunters and warriors. There is a tradition that a camp was burned there with all its in- mates, and that their implements and bones were afterwards found. Later the Indians made the point of land on Mill Brook their camping ground.
So common were the Indians during the first settlement of the town, that quite a fleet of canoes on the river was a common occur- rence. Among many anecdotes related of the Indians I will speak of only one which has recently come to my notice. A party of Indians encamped near Alder river, who offered to wrestle with Jonathan Barker, one of the first settlers in Newry. They selected the weakest first, whom Barker easily laid on his back. The others came in turn with the same result, till he reached the strongest. Barker found him exceedingly strong in his arms, but he succeeded in tripping his legs and laying him solid on his back. The Indian rose and exclaimed, "you all mattahondou," which in plain English meant, "you all devil."
It is a matter of political significance to remark that the Andros- coggin river was for a long time the boundary line between French and English influence. The later Indians who visited Bethel used to speak of the happy people that formerly dwelt there, away from the incursions of the whites. They never conveyed their lands to the whites above Lewiston' Falls, and the last survivor claimed a right to the lands in Bethel as long as he lived.
Among the many Indians who were well known to the early set- tlers was Sabattis from Fryeburg. Matalluc was the last survivor on Umbagog Lake, who died at Stewartstown, N. H., about 1840.
Mollocket, a corruption of Mary Agatha, died in Andover in 1816. She was supposed to be the last of the Pequakets. Sergeant
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Lewey and Capt. Phillip were in the revolutionary war. Captain Swarson was also in the war. These were Pequakets. Tomhegan never visited Bethel after the raid in 1781.
The Indians of the St. Francis tribe often visited Bethel to have their guns and jewelry repaired by Eli Twitchell, Esq. An Indian once came with a box of jewelry for that purpose, but never appeared to claim it.
The following notice respecting the present town of Bethel, stands recorded as follows :
"June 7, 1768. In General Court of Massachusetts. Reported, Read, and accepted, and Resolved, That there be granted to Josiah Richardson and others, mentioned in the Petition, whose ancestors were in the expedition against Canada in 1690, a Township of six and three-quarters miles square, to be laid out in the unappropriated lands of this Province to the eastward of Saco river. Provided, the grantees within seven years settle eighty-three families in said town, build a house for the Publick worship, and settle a learned Protes- tant minister, and lay out one eighty-third part for the ministry, one eighty-third part for the use of a school in said town, and one eighty-third part for the use of Harvard College forever. Provided, also, that they return a plan thereof into the Secretary's office in twelve months for confirmation. Sent up for concurrence."
It is worthy of note here that seventy-eight years had elapsed before the General Court of Massachusetts recognized the claims of the heirs of those who had been employed as soldiers in the expedition to Canada.
This township received the name of Sudbury Canada from the circumstance that the original proprietors were principally from Sudbury, in Massachusetts, and the new township was located somewhere near Canada .*
A meeting of the proprietors was held the same year, and Joseph Twitchell and Isaac Fuller, a surveyor, were chosen to survey the township and divide it into lots that year. It is probable that they selected the location of the town from the unappropriated lands east of the Saco river, by representations of hunters of the fine interval lands on the Androscoggin river. As their location con- sisted of six and three-fourths miles square without regard to its external shape, they extended their survey along the best intervales of the river, a distance of seventeen miles, and around all the pine timber possible. The lots were long and narrow, consisting of forty acres each. On the uplands the lots were divided into squares of one hundred acres. Subsequently an addition was made to the ter- ritory of the town by a tier of lots bordering on the towns of Albany and Greenwood, as it was found that the original surveyors had not
*This is a mistake, so far as the last word in the name is concerned. It was called in part, "Canada," because it was granted for military service in the invasion of Canada in 1690, and was one of the so-called Canada townships. Turner was called "Sylvester Canada," and Jay, "Phips Canada," etc.
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included sufficient land in accordance with their grant, or else be- cause there was much good pine timber there.
After the return of the surveyors, Joseph Twitchell, a gentleman of wealth, and ancestor of all that name in this town and vicinity, saw and appreciated the future value of these lands, and as many of the proprietors refused to pay the assessments, he commenced buying up their claims, until eventually he held no less than forty shares. It was to his energy and foresight that the town was set- tled, though he never resided there himself. Among his purchases was the lot covering a large portion of what is now the village at Bethel Hill, including all the mill privileges on Mill Brook. He purchased this of the proprietors, April 6, 1774, for the sum of fifteen pounds, silver money.
December 5th, 1769, Josiah Richardson, Esq., and Cornelius Wood of Sudbury, and Josiah Stone of Framingham, were author- ized by the proprietors to sell to Joseph Twitchell, two whole rights for the sum of four pounds, in consequence of the non-payment of assessments. Similar meetings for the same purpose were held in 1773, 1774, 1777 and 1783.
Among those who purchased a large number of the original rights were Aaron Richardson and Jonathan Clark of Newtown, who in December, 1774, paid one hundred and eighty pounds in lawful money.
What were the relations of Sudbury Canada to the rest of the world one hundred years ago? Covered with dense pine forests, the hunter did not know the existence of a mountain till he reached its base. The Androscoggin, like a silver thread, wound its way mid mountains and forests, whose banks were covered with tall pines to its water's edge. The pioneer who once reached the place must go by spotted trees forty miles to Fryeburg through an un- broken wilderness; forty miles down the river to Livermore, and forty miles by spotted trees, or by the compass, to New Gloucester. Ascending the river to its source, it was an unbroken forest to the shores of the St. Lawrence. Consequently, for many years after the settlement of the town, when a person came to Sudbury Canada, he was said to go through the woods.
The breaking out of the revolutionary war prevented the settle- ment of the town according to the conditions of the original grant, and it was not till 1783 that the General Court gave a full title to the settlers for their lands. Every settler was entitled to fifty acres of land in addition to his lot, and the duty of surveying these lots usually devolved on Capt. Eleazer Twitchell, after he moved into town in 1780.
Amid some very shadowy evidence of any attempt towards clear- ing lands for a settlement, I must assume that the first man who shouldered his axe for this purpose was Lieut. Nath'l Segar,* who
*Jonathan Keyes, the first settler in Rumford, became the owner of Sudbury Canada land in 1772, and in 1776, he had cleared land, built a house and barn, and made other improvements. It is quite probable that he was here a year or two before Segar. He sold his land in the early part of 1777, to Samuel Ingalls, called "of Fryeburg," and moved to New Pennacook, now Rumford.
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came to Sudbury Canada from Newtown, Mass., in the spring of 1774, and spent several months in felling and clearing on the farm now occupied by his daughter and her husband, Capt. Wm. Barker, in what is now Hanover.
Lieut. Segar left for Newtown in the fall, and enlisted in the revolutionary war, in which he was engaged two years and nine months, and returned to Bethel in 1779, in company with Jonathan Bartlett. They carried kettles with them for making sugar, and the next autumn returned to Massachusetts. The next spring Thad- deus Bartlett, and a boy by the name of Barton came back and spent their time in making sugar, which they sold to the Indians, and in clearing their farms.
In the same year that Segar came to town, (1774) Lieut. Jona- than Clark came to Sudbury Canada and purchased a lot where Lewis Sanborn now lives, but did not make much progress toward a settlement, and he returned to his home in Massachusetts and be- came a commissary in the army, but returned to Sudbury Canada in 1778-9, and exchanged his farm for the one now occupied by A. L. Burbank, Esq. It is said that he cut the first hay in town on the brook opposite the steam saw mill, though this is also claimed for a meadow on Alder river, where a beaver dam existed, by which six acres came into grass spontaneously.
In 1774, Capt. Joseph Twitchell built a saw mill on the fall near Eben Clough's starch factory. The remains of the dam may still be seen. This appears to have been the first building erected in town, save a few log camps. The same year he erected at the lower fall on Mill Brook, a grist mill, on the spot where the present mill now stands. On the opposite side of the street, on the little island now owned by David Brown, Esq., was erected the first. frame house in town in 1779. It was built to accommodate the workmen in the mill. It had a long, shed roof, reaching nearly to. the ground, and had two rooms. It has a subsequent history which will be noticed hereafter.
In the fall of 1776, Mr. Samuel Ingalls* and wife came to the settlement from Andover, Mass., and spent the winter on the farm occupied by Mr. Asa Kimball. She rode part of the way on horse- back, and the rest of the way traveled on foot. She was the first white woman ever within the limits of the town. In consequence. of this fact the proprietors of the plantation gave her one hundred acres of land. He subsequently removed to Bridgton, and then returned to Bethel, and died on the farm of the late Amos Young.
Benj. Russell, Esq., came to Bethel from Fryeburg, with his. family, in March, 1777. Himself and Gen. Amos Hastings, then living in Fryeburg, being mounted on snow shoes, hauled on hand- sleds his wife and daughter, then fifteen years old, and who after- wards became the wife of Lieut Segar. They traveled nearly fifty miles in two days. They camped the first night near the mills at.
*In a deed from Jonathan Keyes to Samuel Ingalls, dated March 14. 1777, conveying 400- acres of land in Sudbury Canada, the latter is said to be "of Fryeburg;" see note on preceding page.
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North Waterford. Mrs. Russell was consequently the second white woman that came to town. Mr. Russell performed the business of the plantation, wrote an elegant hand, and celebrated the marriages. He used to say that he was the first Justice of the Peace in what is now Oxford County. He died November, 1802, and his wife, 1808.
In 1778, Jesse Duston moved into the town with his wife, who was the third white woman. He settled on the farm now occupied by Bela Williams. Another important event worthy of historic record occurred in 1782, as the result of their advent. To Mrs. Duston was born the first child in what was then Sudbury Canada, but now Hanover. His name was Peregrine. The proprietors were so elated at the prospect of an increase to its own population from within its own borders after a lapse of fourteen years from the date of their grant, that they in their generosity gave their first-born one hundred acres of land, on the farm now occupied by Vincent Chapman. What a farm situated at the foot of Bear mountain was valued at at that time, I have no means of knowing. Peregrine Duston became a minister of the Methodist denomination, and died quite young.
During the same year, March 12, 1782, Joseph Twitchell was born, being the first white child born within the present limits of Bethel. He died November 24, 1871, aged 90 years. He resided in town during his life, except four years in Brunswick.
In 1779, James Swan came from Fryeburg, Me., and settled on the farm now occupied by Ayers Mason & Son. He built a house east of the road between Alder river bridge and Ayers Mason's house, on land now owned by Samuel D. Philbrook. He had three sons who were young men when he came; Joseph Greely Swan, who lived with his father ; Elijah, who did not make a permanent settlement in the town ; James, who settled on Swan's Hill, and Nathaniel, who settled on Sunday river, in Bethel, and died there. Their father was known as the man with whom Sabattis, a well known Pequaket Indian, lived many years in Fryeburg.
During this year, (1779) Capt. Joseph Twitchell, the original proprietor of the mills, persuaded his son, Capt. Eleazer Twitchell, then living in Dublin, N. H., to move with his family to Bethel, and take charge of his father's property. Accordingly, Capt. Twitchell, his wife, and wife's sister, Betsey Mason, five children and six hired men, viz. : John Grover, Jeremiah Andrews, Gideon, Paul and Silas Powers, and a Mr. Fisk, left Dublin and came as far as Fryeburg in the winter of 1780, and in the spring reached Sudbury Canada.
Capt. Twitchell sent his men through the woods from Fryeburg to Sudbury Canada to beat a path in the snow on their snow-shoes, when they returned to Fryeburg, packed their baggage on hand- sleds and started for Bethel, the women following in the rear. What earnest man will not be followed by an equally earnest woman, even to the wild woods of Sudbury Canada? He occupied the house which had been built on the island near the grist-mill. He at once
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repaired the grist-mill, caught moose on the neighboring hills for meat, while his children picked berries in the woods. Capt. T. was a great acquisition to the town. He sent his men to aid settlers coming into town, ran out the town line and surveyed the lots for the new settlers, and aided them in securing homes for themselves. He commenced clearing the farm now occupied by Moses A. Mason, cutting the pine timber of the best quality, which was put into the Androscoggin and floated to Brunswick, while the poorer quality was used for making log fences. Think of it, ye men whose eyes now- a-days glisten with delight at the sight of a pine log, when Capt. Twitchell hauled into the river and sold the handsomest white pine imaginable for fifty cents a thousand ! It was considered a good winter's work in those days when a man could haul lumber enough into the river with which to buy a yoke of oxen.
Thus in the spring of 1781 there had been but ten families settled in the town during the thirteen years since the plantation had been granted to the proprietors. This occurred during the stormy times of the American revolution. Five of these families settled in the upper part of the town, Capt. Eleazer Twitchell, Benj. Russell, Esq., Abraham Russell, Lieut. Jonathan Clark and James Swan. In the lower part of the town were five families, Samuel Ingalls, Jesse Dustin, John York, Amos Powers and Nathaniel Segar. The nearest of these two divisions was six miles apart, while some were ten or eleven miles.
In 1781, David Marshall and wife moved into the town and settled on the Sanborn farm, on which the old town-house stood. Peter Austin also settled on the farm now occupied by John Barker. He had a camp but was not married. This was in 1780.
On the 3d of August, 1781, occurred an event which is worthy of note as being the last of the incursions made by the Indians on the whites in New England. (See Chapter VI, page 45.)
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